South Carolina              
Administrative Law Court
Edgar A. Brown building 1205 Pendleton St., Suite 224 Columbia, SC 29201 Voice: (803) 734-0550

SC Administrative Law Court Decisions

CAPTION:
Lowcountry Open Land Trust, Inc. vs. SCDHEC, et al

AGENCY:
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control

PARTIES:
Petitioner:
Lowcountry Open Land Trust, Inc.

Respondents:
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and Martins Point Property Owners Association
 
DOCKET NUMBER:
05-ALJ-07-0197-CC

APPEARANCES:
n/a
 

ORDERS:

ORDER STRIKING CASES FROM THE DOCKET

In the above-captioned consolidated cases, Petitioners challenge the decision of Respondent South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (Department), through its Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM), to issue a permit to Respondent Martins Point Property Owners’ Association (Respondent) for the construction of a community dock on common area in the Martins Point subdivision on Wadmalaw Island in Charleston County, South Carolina. In their opposition to Respondent’s permit, Petitioners Doug David and the Martins Point Limited Partnership contend that construction of such a dock is prohibited by a deed restriction on the common area on which the dock will be located. Similarly, Petitioner Lowcountry Open Land Trust, Inc., contends that a recorded conservation easement on the common area precludes the construction of the permitted dock. In addition to requesting these contested cases to challenge the permit, Petitioners have filed two law suits in the Court of Common Pleas in Charleston County to enforce the deed restriction and conservation easement, respectively, and thus prevent the construction of the permitted dock. By a motion filed on August 24, 2005, Petitioners requested a stay of these administrative proceedings pending the resolution of their suits before the Circuit Court. On September 8, 2005, Respondent filed a response to Petitioners’ motion, in which it argues that this matter should proceed simultaneously with the matters in Circuit Court. For the reasons set forth below, Petitioners’ motion for a stay is hereby granted.

Because the issues truly dispositive to Petitioners’ challenge to Respondent’s permit will be resolved by the actions brought by Petitioners in the Court of Common Pleas, I find that this matter should be stayed pending the resolution of those suits. The objections raised by Petitioners to Respondent’s dock permit involve property disputes—namely, the enforcement of deed restrictions and conservation easements—that cannot be resolved by this Court within its jurisdiction. Accordingly, Petitioners have placed those property matters before the Court of Common Pleas in Charleston County. As the decisions reached in those suits before the Circuit Court will most probably be determinative of the matters at issue in these cases, I find that these cases should be stayed pending the resolution of Petitioners’ actions in Circuit Court. Further, because it will likely take some time for those actions to be resolved, I find that the most appropriate method for holding this matter in abeyance is to strike these cases from this Court’s docket, while granting Petitioners leave to restore them to the docket, when and if necessary. Therefore,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, for the reasons set forth above, these cases are STRICKEN FROM THE ACTIVE DOCKET of the South Carolina Administrative Law Court and the hearing of this matter scheduled for Tuesday, November 1, 2005, is CANCELED.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that these cases shall be restored to the active docket of the ALC upon motion of Petitioners if such motion is made within sixty (60) days of a final decision by the Court of Common Pleas for Charleston County in the matters referenced above, or, if such a decision is appealed, within sixty (60) days of the resolution of any such appeal.

AND IT IS SO ORDERED.

 

____________________________

JOHN D. GEATHERS

Administrative Law Judge

 

September 29, 2005

Columbia, South Carolina


Brown Bldg.

 

 

 

 

 

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