[Rhodes22-list] Thena, News on the Pass!

[Brad Haslett]

Thena,

Saw this article in todays Sun Herald.  Looks like they're going to double
the size of the harbor in both Pass Christian and Long Beach.  That will
take awhile.  They had a town board meeting in Long Beach last night and it
almost turned into a brawl.  The smaller towns along the coast are barely
functioning.  Anyway, there is a lot of money (a few billion) headed to the
coast but these projects will take years to finish.  I'm just waiting for
someone to clean the waters beyond the beach (well out of our area of
expertise) and build some docks.

Brad


<http://www.sunherald.com/>



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  Posted on Fri, Jun. 23, 2006   **
**
State will double size of Pass Christian, Long Beach harbors
*But no gambling*
*By JOSHUA NORMAN and TOM WILEMON*
**


Secretary of State Eric Clark announced Thursday an agreement with city
leaders on the expansion of Pass Christian and Long Beach harbors to nearly
double their size.

In the agreement was one major caveat: In order to receive final approval
from the secretary of state for the expansion, both cities must not allow
any gambling in either the current or expanded parts of the harbor.

Pass Christian residents have long been opposed to gambling within their
city limits. A non-binding referendum on casinos is expected to take place
in Long Beach on Tuesday.

The announcement also changes the scope of what Long Beach voters will
decide Tuesday, as the wording of the referendum asks residents to consider
whether they want casinos across the highway from the harbor.

Before Clark's announcement, the area adjacent to Long Beach's harbor
offered limited spaces for development, including the possibility of
casinos. Now that area will effectively double.

Clark said the restriction to the expansion may not matter to the
referendum, because according to his office's interpretation of the new
casino-placement law, casino developments are not limited by law to harbor
areas.

"I think the law says that you can put a casino anywhere on land within 800
feet of the water if you own the land that goes to state property," said
Clark. "I think it means if you go to the highway or if you go to the beach,
I think you can put a casino there."

State Rep. Bobby Moak (53rd District), chairman of the House Gaming
Committee that helped craft the recently revised casino-placement law, said
although this may be true in principle, it does not tell the whole story of
where casinos are allowed to go.

"He wasn't completely wrong, there's just a lot of other issues involved,"
said Moak, adding some of those other issues are environmental and zoning
regulations. "There's a lot of stumbling blocks. (The) Gaming Commission
would have the last word on that.

"The biggest safeguard that we have is the Gaming Commission. I don't
believe you're simply going to see the Gaming Commission go willy-nilly and
let the horse run on site selection."

The Gaming Commission regulation on this issue mandates that any casino
developer lease or own the land from the mean high tide to 800 feet inland
for it to be a legal gambling site. "The applicant or licensee must own
and/or lease the land this is contiguous both to the parcel used to conduct
gaming and the point of reference used to determine the mean high water
line, and this land must be shown to be an integral part of the project,"
the regulation states.

The owner of property on the north side of U.S. 90, who has no land on the
beach side of the highway, does not hold a legal gambling site, according to
this regulation.

The Gaming Commission will not even consider giving a location legal
gambling status until it has the local zoning and a developer gives notice
of intent to develop the site.

Biloxi allows casinos to go only where there is land next to the water. The
land across from public beaches is not zoned for casinos.

Bottomlands, where the harbors will be expanded, belong to Mississippi. One
of the secretary of state's duties is to be the trustee of state lands.

Bobby Moak

Tim Pierce
------------------------------

*The Harbor Agreement*

Long Beach and Pass Christian reached an agreement with Secretary of State
Eric Clark that makes an exception to a long-standing state policy that
protects the beach from any commercial development.

Long Beach has been approved to expand to the east to Cleveland Avenue. Pass
Christian has been approved to expand to the west to Davis Avenue.

Clark said this exception was made because of Hurricane Katrina; he said he
made the agreement with several conditions in mind.

City leaders will vote on the agreement before it officially takes effect.

The conditions for the agreement:

1) The cities will not make further requests to alter the sand beach and
will oppose any attempts to do so.

2) A no-rent lease will be entered into between the secretary of state and
the municipality.

3) Public access will be guaranteed.

4) No gambling will be allowed in either the current harbor or expanded
harbor.

5) Subleases for commercial development must receive approval from the
secretary of state and be low-impact and recreation-related. The Tidelands
Fund will receive 50 percent of the rent on subleases in the expanded harbor
section and the city will receive all the rest of the rent.

6) If at any time a development different than a low-impact,
recreation-related business is allowed in the harbor, the city will not
share in the rent from the new development.

7) The secretary of state will reserve the right of final approval of design
plans.

8) The city and state will enter into covenants in a form that will be
recorded in the land records of Harrison County. These covenants will
contain a provision that would allow any beneficiary of the Public Tidelands
Trust to sue to protect and enforce these covenants. The municipality shall
not be entitled to share in any rents while in violation of these covenants;
however, the municipality shall have 90 days to cure any violations prior to
loss of right to receive its rent share.

- SECRETARY OF STATE ERIC CLARK



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