WHAT IT MEANS TO METRO ATLANTA
Though 250 miles to the southeast, Savannah’s port is part of the metro Atlanta economy. Goods that flow through the port also flow through metro area distribution centers and along its highways. Port activity in Savannah and Brunswick support an estimated 100,000 metro jobs, according to a University of Georgia study.
Gov. Nathan Deal has given the go-ahead to unleash millions in state funds to start dredging Savannah’s port — one of the state’s top economic priorities — even without Washington’s support. But securing the thousands of acres along the boggy waterway has already proven a daunting task.
Vast stretches of property needed to offset environmental damage and secure dredging right-of-way are owned by corporations, would-be developers with big dreams or private landowners with historic ties to the land and no intention of selling.
Complicating matters are warnings from federal authorities who say that buying the land without White House approval to move ahead with the port deepening could saddle the state with poisoned property and thorny legal problems. And Deal’s political rivals are eager to exploit any misstep in an election year.
Deal decided to push forward on the dredging this month after the Obama administration's surprise decision to declare the $685 million project not ready to proceed and deprive it of federal money to start work. The governor instructed state officials a week later to use "all lawful means" to start snapping up the property needed.
The state has plenty to choose from. The Army Corps of Engineers outlined roughly 70 parcels across three Georgia and South Carolina counties along the Savannah River that could help reverse environmental damage from dredging, which is aimed at deepening the channel to open the port to bigger ships.
Deal aides say negotiations are underway with some of the owners, though they won’t say which ones.
Eli Whitney’s Inspiration
This sudden demand for property could drive prices to new heights. The state has set aside roughly $30 million for land acquisition, almost double the government’s estimate based on a review of 2011 land values. Bart Gobeil, the state’s chief operating officer, said he’s not surprised by the increase.
“The market has changed since 2011, which will be taken into consideration,” said Gobeil. “The project will pay fair market value for the properties and easements and will adhere to all federal regulations for the purchases.”
Some preliminary work has already been done. One parcel already acquired by the Georgia Ports Authority heralds itself as the place where Eli Whitney dreamed up the cotton gin. It sold in July for $492,500, or about $2,880 per acre. It’s not part of the land needed for the dredging, though state officials say the acquisition will aid the project.
Others on the list include warehouses for Target and Ikea, property owned by the city of Port Wentworth, a vast tract once envisioned as a residential development and a former rice plantation in South Carolina that’s been passed down for generations by the same family.
For Deal, who has vowed to start the process before the year’s end, the negotiations present a political challenge. Democrat Jason Carter, his party’s nominee for governor, said during a stop in Savannah that Deal’s move could leave Georgia vulnerable to expensive legal challenges and endanger any goodwill left in Washington for the project.
The Obama administration has said the Savannah port project's status is tied up in a dispute over a water authorization bill that's pending in Congress and may not reach another vote until late April. The White House's budget office has said it won't make "special exceptions" for any project.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, who is chief of engineers for the Corps, told the AJC Wednesday that he’s optimistic there’s enough “passion” behind the project within his agency to soon earn final federal approval. Until then, though, the state’s prospects are more limited.
‘The state can do some things now but there would be some risk, and we have been very clear that they could move forward with some efforts - the district has defined what those are - using their money,” he said.
Georgia politicians of all stripes criticized the administration’s decision to hold up funding but disagree on how to proceed.
“President Obama was wrong not to follow through on his administration’s commitment to Georgia,” Carter said. “But the governor’s knee-jerk decision to go it alone has the potential to expose Georgia to years of expensive litigation and endanger the carefully built state-federal partnership that we need to make this project happen.”
Georgia also faces the threat of legal action or other rebuke from Washington. The Corps warned in a 2011 letter that buying property without federal approval could leave the state saddled with “contaminated lands,” and that moving forward could mean the state assumes all costs and risk in land acquisition.
Gobeil said the state can overcome that threat. He said the state has worked with federal regulators for years to identify potential land purchases for the dredging “to ensure that they’re in scope with the overall project.”
‘I’m not interested in selling’
State officials hope to buy a few large tracts of wetlands to meet federal requirements. If those efforts fail, they may have to string together smaller parcels by appealing to landowners such as John Wylly Jr., a veteran Savannah real estate agent whose family has long owned land along the state’s potential wish list.
“I’m not interested in selling,” said Wylly, whose land now hosts revenue-producing billboards fronting I-95.
Charles Garfunkel, whose family has been in Savannah real estate going back a century, said many families that own land along the river are wealthy and would have sold out long ago if they needed the money. Even if the state turns to the legal process to condemn the land, he said, some owners have political connections to avoid a court fight.
“If they don’t their attorney does,” said Garfunkel, co-owner of A. J. & C. Garfunkel. “Somebody is connected. That’s why they wrote those political checks.”
Even dicier is the prospect of negotiating for land across the river in South Carolina, where officials look coolly on Georgia’s harbor deepening project.
One of the larger tracts cited by the Corps as a potential target is the Fife Plantation, a historic rice plantation across the river from Savannah. The 1,250-acre tract has the original canal and dike system dug by Irish immigrants and slave labor in the early 1800s.
Robbie Harrison’s family traces its links to the land to 1885. His great grandfather bought it in 1900 and planted rice commercially until 1933. The family uses the land for hunting, educational purposes and historic preservation.
“We as a family are not interested in selling,” said Harrison, 74. “This place is ingrained in our heart, soul and blood.”
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