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Residents, conservationists close ranks against 936-foot dock on Daufuskie
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What: Public hearing on a permit application to alter a critical area to build a 936-foot private dock on Daufuskie Island
When: 6 p.m. today
Where: The state Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management office, 104 Parker Drive, Beaufort
Details: The state will accept public comments for about another two weeks after the hearing. The state has 30 days to make a decision, project manager Kathleen Lamaker said.
Plans for a 936-foot private dock from Daufuskie Island over marsh and a sandbar to the Cooper River have stirred concerns among environmentalists and nearby property owners.
State officials plan a public hearing at 6 p.m. today because at least 20 people requested one, said Kathleen Lamaker, a project manager for the state Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.
Bill Scott of Hilton Head Island applied in September to build the dock from a lot at 53 Carvin Road. Scott plans to use the dock for private recreational use, according to the application.
He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The dock would be longer than two and a half football fields. It consists of: a 4-by-890-foot walkway; a covered, fixed pierhead with water and electricity; a catwalk; a ramp; and a boat lift.
Tom Crews, a Hilton Head architect who owns property on Daufuskie and has a smaller dock that roughly parallels the one Scott has planned, opposes the dock.
Among opponents, Crews said, the planned dock "sends shivers up our collective backs" because it stretches so far over the marsh, which he considers "part of the public realm."
"If you want waterfront property, you should buy waterfront property," Crews said. "I don't know why we would want to do that to a nice, pristine area like that."
Crews is a member of a Beaufort County committee working to shape development on the island. He said the dock would go against the spirit of the committee's plan, which would protect parts of the island by focusing development at a few nodes.
Reed Armstrong of the Coastal Conservation League said the advocacy group plans to oppose the dock and suggest alternatives, such as a shorter dock to a creek that empties into the river.
Such an alternative could be less than half as long as the planned dock, Armstrong said.
"We're opposing the dock as being excessive," he said.
The league also is concerned shade from the dock could kill surrounding marsh grass, he said.
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