A development group, Spectre, LLC, requested a state permit and coastal zone certification to fill 31.76 acres of wetlands on a 62.93 acre tract of land in Murrells Inlet in Horry County. The request would have converted this almost 32 acre cypress swamp into a large commercial development.
DHEC staff denied the permit, and Spectre, LLC, asked the DHEC Board to review the staff decision. In its request for Board review, Spectre, LLC, alleged that the South Carolina Coastal Management Program (CMP) is invalid and unenforceable.
The final review conference on the Spectre, LLC, permit was the first time the DHEC Board reviewed a staff decision under a process established by the legislature in 2006 that became effective July 1st. This new process allows the Board to review staff decisions prior to an appeal to the Administrative Law Court.
Representing environmental groups, SCELP argued for the protection of the wetlands and enforcement of the policies of the CMP. The DHEC Board voted unanimously to uphold the staff decision and deny the permit.
Spectre has filed an appeal of this decision to the Administrative Law Court. SCELP, representing the S. C. Wildlife Federation, Coastal Conservation League, and state and local chapters of the League of Women Voters, was granted intervention in the ALC case to continue to defend the validity of the Coastal Management Program. A hearing date has not been set, but we are in the process of mounting a forceful defense of the CMP and this permit denial.