Lost on a Technicality?: Judges' Questions Skeptical of State Claims to 'Valuable' Coastal Marshland at Oral Argument
Wetland ownership has been a hot topic during the state's most recent legislative session, which saw a bill introduced that aimed "to make it easier for coastal landowners to claim ownership of parts of the state's salt marsh," according to a report by WABE, that noted while the bill's sponsors said it would improve conservation, some detractors argued, "what the bill really does is enable owners to sell mitigation credits—so that developers can destroy marsh elsewhere."
May 16, 2024 at 05:21 PM
5 minute read
What You Need to Know
- The state of Georgia has entered into a dispute over a quiet title over coastal wetlands against a company that wants to 'restore and conserve' the land.
- Now the company needs to prove the legitimacy of an 1834 property grant to prevail.
- The trial court shot down both parties' motions for summary judgment, leading both to appeal the case.
The fate of "approximately 1,000 acres of coastal marshland worth "well over $100 million," was up before consideration by the Court of Appeals on Tuesday, as the intermediate court was asked to determine whether the land rightfully belong under private ownership or to the state.
The disputed area is a peninsula of coastal marshland called Arnold's Point, located on a sharp bend of the Ogeechee River in Bryan County, just south of Savannah. The plaintiff-appellant, a company called NoFree, wants ownership to "restore and conserve" the land, according to its appellate briefs, but it's subject to the state Protection of Tidewaters Act—unless NoFree can rebut the state's claims and prove a chain of title stretching back to the state's original 1834 property grant.
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