Environmental Values
Judge Invalidates State Marshlands Permit
Case Sent Back for Further Review
Center Helps Win an Environmental Victory, Assisted by Southern Environmental Law Center!
Atlanta A judge ruled late yesterday that the state violated the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act
when it failed to consider the full environmental impact on publicly owned marshes from the proposed
Emerald Pointe development near Savannah. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance Russell, saying
the state conducted an "artificially truncated inquiry," reversed the March decision of an administrative
law judge upholding the Emerald Pointe permit and sent the case back for further review.
Conservation groups heralded the judge's ruling as a crucial step toward protecting Georgia's increasingly
threatened marsh ecosystem. "The ruling sends a strong signal to the Coastal Marshlands Protection Committee
that it must vigorously exercise its responsibility to protect Georgia's invaluable marsh lands," said
Stephen O'Day, of Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta. O'Day is Senior Litigation Counsel with the Southern
Environmental Law Center, which is representing the Center for a Sustainable Coast, the Altamaha Riverkeeper
and the Sierra Club in challenging the permit.
The committee issued a permit to Emerald Pointe last year to build three bridges connecting three marsh
hammocks, small upland areas that dot the coastal marsh. The developer plans to build high-end residences on
the hammocks. The conservation groups challenged the permit, saying the committee failed to consider
environmental impacts from the residential development and instead looked only at the impacts from the
bridges. They also argued that, if approved, the permit would open a floodgate of other development permits
for the 1,000 or so hammocks in Georgia. In recent years, pressure has increased tremendously to build on the
hammocks, which were designated one of America's "most endangered landscapes" by Scenic America earlier this
year.
In her order, Judge Russell said that "bridges are not roads to nowhere" and that
"analyzing the propriety of issuing permits for bridges and activities in the marshes
in isolation from the larger purpose of the activity or structure does violence to the
intent of the Act." Judge Russell also held that the administrative law judge erred
in saying the state was prohibited from considering the cumulative environmental impacts
from future development permits.
The case now goes back to the administrative law judge for review of the evidence in light
of Judge Russell's ruling, and possibly a new evidentiary hearing.
Southern Environmental Law Center
Founded in 1986, Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is the only non-profit, regional organization
dedicated solely to protecting the South's environment and outstanding natural areas. SELC's conservation
projects include native forests, wetlands, the coast, clean air, rivers and streams, wildlife habitat, rural
landscapes and livable communities. SELC works through legal advocacy and policy reform in partnership with
more than 100 other groups in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. |
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