School district, Palmetto Railways land dispute moves to appeals court
David Wren — The Post and Courier
Charleston County School District wants the state Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court decision to let a judge instead of a jury hear arguments in a land dispute involving Palmetto Railways' planned rail yard in North Charleston.
Circuit Court Judge Markley Dennis made the ruling in October to put the case on a non-jury roster, and last month denied the district's request to reconsider the decision. The school district filed its appeal Wednesday.
The dispute centers around the 3.74 acre former site of Academic Magnet High School. The high school was relocated in 2010.
The property is part of a 70-acre parcel that Palmetto Railways acquired through condemnation for its proposed Navy Base Intermodal Facility. The $130 million rail yard is where cargo containers will be transferred between freight trains and ships visiting the State Ports Authority's new Leatherman Terminal, scheduled to open in 2019.
An arbitrator ruled that the school district has an "equitable interest" in former Academic Magnet site because of an agreement that dates to early redevelopment efforts of the Navy base property after the military left in 1996. Palmetto Railways and the school district are going to court to determine how much money, if any, that interest is worth. The railroad wants a judge to make the ruling, while the school district says state laws allows it to request a jury.
Dennis, in his ruling, said only landowners can request a jury trial.
Meanwhile, Clemson University - the owner of the 70-acre tract - reached a settlement with Palmetto Railways, filed in December, that ends legal action over the shortline railroad's condemnation of the property for development of the cargo yard. As part of the agreement, Palmetto Railways must give Clemson another, to-be-determined piece of land by August.
Clemson gained control of the property in the years after the Navy base closed in a series of transactions that saw North Charleston obtain the land from a base redevelopment authority and then transfer it to the university without the school district's knowledge, even though the district had a 50-year lease on the high school site. That lease was the basis for the arbitrator's decision in favor of the school district.
The rail yard would be located on about half of Palmetto Railroad's 240-acre tract at the former Navy base. Once fully built, it will employ about 120 workers and handle 1.1 million shipping containers annually from the new port on the Cooper River.
