ELBERT COUNTY, GA - Saying an application to construct floating docks on Lake Richard B. Russell “violates the original intent of pristine conditions” on the lake, Elbert County Administrator Bob Thomas has written a letter to the South Carolina Department of Commerce (SCDOC) asking for a public hearing in Elbert County or in Abbeville County, S.C., because of objections by property owners on the lake.

The application calls for floating docks “strategically placed in front of private property and as such will become private docks for the residents and homeowners of the development company,” Thomas wrote in a letter dated March 7 to the SCDOC.

The letter was sent prior to a March 10 deadline established by the Charleston (S.C.) District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for comment on the Lake Russell project in which the SCDOC has submitted the application to build floating boat docks in the Blue Hole Recreation Area.

The proposed docks are strategically located just off the shoreline on the South Carolina side next to a private gated-community development project.

The letter by three days precedes a March 10 letter to the Corps of Engineers from Hunton & Williams law firm in Atlanta, which is representing 14 businesses around the lake who “have interests along the shores of Lake Russell, in the form of businesses, real and personal property, and recreational use and enjoyment of the lake.”

According to documents submitted to the Corps of Engineers by the law firm, a company known as The Sanctuary (out of Charlotte, N.C.) is advertising that the 125 boat slips proposed in Lake Russell would be for the development’s “private exclusive use.”

This violates the Corps of Engineers intent for the lake to the body of water in a pristine state for recreational use, say the homeowners.

The interested parties in the Hunton & Williams law firm are Evergreen Resources, Beaverdam Marina, Vandiver Family Investment LP, Beaverdam Estates Homeowners Association, Savannah Bluff Homeowners Association, Allen Creek Homeowners Association, Horseshoe Pointe Homeowners Association, Wilson Creek Homeowners Association, Pickens Creek Homeowners Association, Newton’s Pointe Homeowners Association. Newton’s Landing Homeowners Association, Craft Ferry Homeowners Association, Patriots Pointe Homeowners Association and Coldwater Creek Homeowners Association.

Thomas said his letter is an effort to “level the playing field” for development at Lake Russell.

According to Thomas, if a private development is allowed to provide homeowners on the South Carolina side “exclusive private access” to those docks, then that precedent would create an environment in which all development would move to the South Carolina side.

“If that kind of development is going to be allowed then Georgia needs the same kind of development access,” said Thomas, who said he was asking the Corps of Engineers to enforce the same rules for both sides of Lake Russell.

Although a congressional mandate for a land swap through federal legislation made possible by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) put the development on a fast track, the legislation didn’t allow the developers a pass on Corps of Engineers restrictions on the lake, according to the law firm’s letters.