COASTAL OBSERVER

The county and city councils in Georgetown have tried to schedule a joint meeting for the first time anyone can remember. “We just couldn’t get everybody together,” Mayor Carol Jayroe said before taking a seat with her colleagues this week.

The meeting coincided with the State Ports Authority approving an agreement to turn over 45 acres of port property on the Georgetown waterfront to the county. The decision was not a surprise, but the prospect of redevelopment helped sharpen the focus of the two bodies on future meetings.

“It’s beneficial to the city and county,” Jayroe said. “Working together is paramount to getting this done.”

A proviso included in the state budget last year by Rep. Lee Hewitt called for the county to take ownership of the port by June 30 of this year. In exchange, the State Ports Authority will keep money that the legislature appropriated for harbor dredging that was never performed.

But the city and county have worked together to come up with a plan to dredge the harbor to a depth of 12 feet that will accommodate commercial fishing boats and recreational boats, including larger boats that travel the Intracoastal Waterway.

The cost is estimated at $3.3 million for the section from the Winyah Bay entrance along the city’s Harborwalk. It will cost another $1.9 million to dredge from the Harborwalk past the steel mill to the port property.

“The idea here is that you would maintain the working waterfront,” said Tiffany Harrison, the county’s economic development director.

The Corps of Engineers, which stopped dredging the harbor in 2008, maintained a depth of 26 feet. Dredging on that scale is estimated to cost $26 million, Harrison said.

Although it has been six years since the last commercial cargo was delivered to the port, the Corps still includes the port in its budget request, Harrison said.

It is up to Congress to fund the work, and the county has contacted Sen. Lindsey Graham and U.S. 7th District Rep. Russell Fry for support.

“This body has taken it as far as we can. We really need help from somebody else,” City Council Member Jim Clements said. “All we need to be doing now is chasing Fry and Graham.”

That’s one area where it helps to have both councils involved, Jayroe said.

“We all have connections. Let’s use them,” she said.

The county also expects to get input from the city on plans to redevelop the port property, Administrator Angela Christian said.

“This will be a slow process,” she added. “We certainly have some time on our side to work on that master plan.”

Engineers who evaluated the site last year found $13.68 million worth of structural problems at the facility. In addition, the county filed documents with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to allow it to clean up environmental hazards on the site without assuming any liability for those hazards. That will allow the county to apply for “brownfield” cleanup funding.

The State Ports Authority also owns 209 acres along the Sampit River that are designated as a spoils site for harbor dredging. That was initially supposed to transfer with the other facilities, but this year’s state budget extended that to June 30, 2024. The change was the result of finding unspent funds in the ports agency account that had been earmarked for the Georgetown facility, Hewitt said.

The county will get that money, but buy the spoils site, keeping $2.5 million to help fund repairs. The budget has received approval from the legislature. The governor sent his veto message to the lawmakers this week and they must meet to deal with those.

The county will survey the spoils site this summer to determine how much capacity is available, Harrison said.

The cleanup of the main port facility will take two to three years, Christian said. In the meantime, the county will draft a scope of work for a firm to help create a master plan.

“That process is getting pretty expensive,” Christian said.

Another issue where the councils  plan to work together is affordable housing. The county plans to address that in an update of its land use plan this year. One of the consultants that will help with the plan specializes in affordable housing, said Holly Richardson, the county planning director.

The county’s nonprofit Economic Development Alliance is also hiring a firm to help find ways to attract multifamily housing, she said.

“We all realize that there is a dramatic need, a desperate need,” County Council Chairman Louis Morant said.

He questioned why the city housing authority turned down a proposal for a new development.

City Council members said they were also puzzled, but added that the authority is an independent agency.

“Will you go with me to see the Housing Authority?” Jayroe asked.

Morant said he would.