A mitigation bank planned for Wadmalaw Island was blocked April 4 when the Charleston County Board of Zoning Appeals denied two variance requests for the project.

Point Farm Investors LLC wanted the board to approve the removal of a grand live oak tree and allow encroachment into 1.3 acres of protected buffer next to tidal land.

The project would change an already salty pond to tidal salt marsh, turn 10.14 acres of freshwater impoundments brackish, and expand 20.60 acres of tidal salt marsh and creeks into currently impounded ponds.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has already approved a permit for the work, while conservationists and some neighbors oppose it.