Road to marsh hammock on Tybee faces opposition | savannahnow.com

Off U.S. 80 on the marsh side of Tybee, fiddler crab chimneys bubble up in the middle of a dirt and gravel road. This part of Polk Street is impassable at some high tides, and the owners of the small marsh island at the end of the road, Michael and Karen Leonard, want better access to their property.

The city of Tybee agrees with them, and the two parties together have requested state and federal permits to elevate the road about two and a half feet.

“The road has been there since the ’50s,” said Alton Brown, a principal at Resource & Land Consultants, the permit applicants’ agent. “The residents have structures (on the hammock), and Mr. Leonard is just trying to restore vehicular access.”

But those requests are raising concerns about not only the effects of the project but also the precedent it could set for other similarly situated coastal properties. There are hundreds of privately owned marsh hammocks in the state, many of them accessible only by boat.

via Road to marsh hammock on Tybee faces opposition | savannahnow.com.