BAY ST. LOUIS
State and federal officials are expected to consider a permit request to build a marina in Bay St. Louis that will require exceptions to coastal wetlands regulations, and involves removing about 150,000 cubic yards of dredged material.
The marina, to be built mostly with federal funds and owned by the city, has been discussed for months. But the permit request filed recently by project engineers is the first official public delineation of the enormity of the project, which the city administration envisions as an economic catalyst that would attract scores of luxury yacht owners to the Bay.
Granting of the permit would allow construction of a marina with 208 slips accommodating boats 35 to 60 feet in length. According to DMR, the facility would include an 850-foot-wide basin and an entrance channel the better part of a mile long.
A representative of Brown & Mitchell, an engineering firm hired for the project, recently told the Bay St. Louis City Council the permit has been filed with the Mississippi Department of Marines Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers. Officials at the DMR are now accepting written comments on the plan from the public, and a public hearing on the issue is scheduled on Jan. 21 at the Bay St. Louis City Council chambers.
The Department of Marine Resources could not be reached Tuesday for comment or other information on the permitting process or how long it may take.
Extensive dredging will be required to build the marina. For a harbor basin, an area 1,200 feet long and 850 feet wide must be dredged to a depth of eight feet. Depths in the area currently range from zero to six feet, the DMR said.
An additional channel from the bay to the marina will be dredged as deep as eight feet for a length of 4,100 feet and 150 feet wide.
The city is requesting a variance to the Mississippi Coastal Program, which requires that marinas be built at least 1,000 feet away from shellfish harvesting areas, and not located in areas with submerged or regularly flooded vegetation. Both those conditions apparently now exist at the proposed site.
The city is also asking for an adjustment to the Coastal Wetlands Use Plan for marina construction. The change would allow construction of both the marina and the new navigation channel, which would access an existing federal navigation channel in the Bay of St. Louis.
The marina would stretch along the shore from DeMontluzin Street nearly to the CSX Railroad tracks. Aside from boat slips, plans call for construction of 3,550 feet of main piers that would be 10 feet wide, as well as 4,049 feet of finger piers measuring four feet in width.
There would also be more than 13,000 square feet of decking, 216 mooring pilings, 10 day markers, and five electrical platforms.
In addition to other breakwaters, a bulkhead, piers and walkways, the northern boundary of the marina would be a pier 1,200 feet long and 10 feet wide, including a pavilion, three fishing piers, a terminal, t-shaped pier, and shading to cover more than 67,000 square feet.
Complete legal ads detailing the project will be published in the Sea Coast Echo on Jan. 2 and Jan. 9. The public hearing on Jan. 21 will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Bay St. Louis City Council Chambers at Main Street and U.S. 90.
In a public notice, DMR said questions and answers will not be allowed at the hearing, but concerned people will be able to make comments on the proposal.
Other comments or objections to the plan must be filed in writing with the Department of Marine Resources, 1141 Bayview Ave., Biloxi, Miss., 39530, and the Office of Pollution Control, P.O. Box 2261, Jackson, Miss., 39225.
