“Drastic Reversal” by the SC Supreme Court on development of the Kiawah Spit

Kiawah Spit, July 2011, aerial photograph by Mary Edna Fraser

After all the years of work of so many people, it looks like we lost on this epic court ruling. It’s a really sad day for us and all those fighting the development of this tenuous landform and improper development of South Carolina’s coasts.

An excerpt from today’s Post & Courier article Supreme Court gives go-ahead for Capt. Sam’s Spit development on Kiawah Island:

Armstrong said the ruling is disturbing not just for the spit but for future court decisions in critical areas to be protected along the coast. The earlier Supreme Court ruling hinged on the need for permit decisions to consider cumulative impacts of a project on areas around it. The current ruling is “180 degrees different,” saying state regulators did not have what Chief Justice Jean Toal termed “expansive power” to deny a permit for a project outside a critical area, because of the area.

The first ruling gave environmental advocates strong grounds to fight other permits, she said. The new ruling seriously undercuts that.

“This is the one place we need to protect as public policy, to protect fragile natural resources along the coast. These unique places are being irretrievably lost to ill-planned development,” she said.

Nancy Vinson and the Coastal Conservation League produced a video presentation in 2010 that explains the logistics of the project and the many reasons to oppose development of the Spit.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCUkvK-dkFo
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt6ZmseIbkw

You can see our history of our activism about this issue on Delete Apathy under the “Kiawah Spit” category. Here is a video, 50 Houses on Kiawah Sand, produced by Celie Dailey and Mary Edna Fraser with Orrin Pilkey and Nancy Vinson which gives more insight into the Kiawah Spit issue.