County should appeal dock permit

Beaufort County officials should revisit the July 24 Zoning Board of Appeals ruling concurring with the S.C. Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management approval of a 720-foot dock at Bull Point Plantation.

The fault isn't the appeals board's or Bull Point's; it is with the OCRM staff that didn't take into consideration that the application was dramatically different from the original, which predated Beaufort County's 300-foot limit on docks in tidal creeks.

Much controversy surrounded the dock ordinance when it was discussed in 1999 and 2000, and the county revised the ordinance based on OCRM recommendations. The ordinance allowed people with permits in hand to construct docks, and within 12 months, those that were destroyed could be rebuilt to the original length. Seven years past the deadline, the county is plagued with the potential of gutting of the ordinance because state employees amended a dock permit, allowing it to be 720 feet. In the process, a 220-foot dock was eliminated and 125 feet added to a permitted 595-foot structure that would serve as a community dock. The state allows 1,000-foot docks.

In April 2000, one concern with dock lengths was that a 1,000-foot structure could destroy the vista for hundreds of people. To some, the elimination of one dock and the addition of 125 feet to an existing permit is a win-win with one less dock. But the change was significant, and it exceeds the mandate of the county ordinance.

The process should have started over. State officials and clerks should not be able to amend a permit that is nearly a decade old.

Reed Armstrong of the Coastal Conservation League's Beaufort office wrote in Tuesday's letters to the editor that the appeals board "decision means that anyone who is on one of these small tidal creeks and has a dock permit which meets the county ordinance could apply for an amendment for a longer dock and that dock could be built regardless of whether it meets the county's standards."

This certainly could set a precedent for longer docks. All evidence is that people want to live near the water, and when the current crisis in mortgage financing subsides, more people will move here and want more docks. The County Council should appeal the decision.