DI News History - September 21, 2017
TEN YEARS AGO – Is Daniel Island safe from port expansion?
In the September 20, 2007 issue of The Daniel Island News, the main story featured the State Ports Authority’s decision to locate a $600 million, 280-acre terminal along the Cooper River over the next 20 years. The project was to replace a massive Global Gateway Terminal originally planned for Daniel Island, where the SPA owned a 1,300-acre tract of land at the time. Developers and politicians were uncertain as to what they would use the land for, with then governor Mark Sanford pitching the idea of a “Central Park” style green space. This idea is still on the table for Sanford, now a U.S. Congressman.
In other island news, the Daniel Island Garden Club presented a check for $18,000 to the new Berkeley County Library on Daniel Island. The money, which included a matching grant from the Daniel Island Community Fund, represented the proceeds from the club’s Tour of Distinctive Gardens of Daniel Island Park event that year.
FIVE YEARS AGO – Future of port-owned DI land still undecided
In the September 20, 2012 issue of The Daniel Island News, the State Ports Authority land on Daniel Island was in the news again. As per a legislative directive enacted in 2009, the port was to have a portion of its Daniel Island property under contract by the end of 2012 and sold by the end of 2013. But by the first deadline, there was no sign that the SPA would be able to make good on that order. Daniel Island resident Jim Merrill, a state representative at the time, served as vice chair of the state’s Port Review and Oversight Commission. He believed there could be some different interpretations of the law regarding the timeline for selling the SPA-owned property. “They are interpreting it to mean they have until 2013 to dispose of the land,” he said. “They have not asked for an extension of any sort…although we have talked with them about it.”
Today, the ownership of some of that land has been transferred to other entities to be used for recreational purposes and a state mitigation bank, and the rest has been retained by the SPA for dredging.