Tense talks on land swap, marina and hotel that ‘doesn’t exist’ bubble up in Tega Cay
Tense public meetings, calls for order and an apology from the mayor for how he addressed a woman surround what’s become an odd controversy in Tega Cay. All over a marina the city doesn’t own and a hotel city officials say doesn’t exist.
Still, some city residents continue to speak out against a hotel or marina plans despite council members’ insistence there’s nothing to protest.
As of Wednesday, no plans for a hotel at or near Tega Cay Marina have been submitted or presented to the city, said city manager Charlie Funderburk. The city will introduce a rule in January that could eliminate the possibility of a hotel there. It would take a public hearing and two Tega Cay City Council votes to authorize that move.
What’s happening at Tega Cay Marina?
In September, council finalized a deal that conveyed a portion of Marina Drive to Tega Cay Marina Ltd., which owns the former city hall building and adjacent Tega Cay Marina.
The company would, as part of the deal, build a sidewalk on a portion of its property and convey it to the city in exchange. The deal also commits the city to “reasonably cooperate” with the company to develop its property.
The city and company contracted to exchange the property Nov. 20.
On Dec. 11, council passed the first of two votes needed to amend the prior agreement. It changes the portion of Marina Drive the city conveys after public push back. The conveyed area now stops short of the boat launch.
The nature and extent of that push back has been unusual.
Mayor Chris Gray and council members addressed a rumored hotel near the marina that Gray said should be “little to do about nothing” before opening public comment at the Nov. 20 council meeting. Gray said the hotel issue had taken the city by storm through social media. But nothing, Gray told a packed Glennon Center crowd, had been presented or submitted to the city about a hotel at the marina.
“It was an idea that’s been tossed around for the last, I don’t know, 12 or 15 years,” Gray said.
Gray said he personally wouldn’t want a hotel there. “It is something that, at this point in time and the forseeable future, is not happening,” Gray said.
Funderburk said discussions with the property owner involved a possible lake club-type building for marina users. Councilman Ryan Richard called a hotel a “pie in the sky” concept from a 2009 city comprehensive plan that became a political ploy the night before city council elections.
“It doesn’t exist,” Richard said of the hotel.
Even with that preface, almost half a dozen residents spoke against the city allowing a hotel there and about the conveyed property near the marina. At one point Gray had to quiet the crowd, saying order was needed and another out-of-turn comment would get someone removed from the meeting.
Mayor apologizes for ‘sweetheart’ comment
At the Dec. 11 meeting, Gray repeatedly called for order due to out-of-turn comments from the public. Gray said he didn’t want to remove anyone but would, and at one point a city police officer stood between citizens who were leaving citizens and council.
Repeated comments led Gray to ask two women to leave so the meeting could continue, and as one made a comment while leaving, Gray responded: “Whatever you want to, sweetheart.”
Less than a minute later, after some members of the public left and the room quieted, Gray apologized for how he addressed the woman. “Sorry, I’m just a good old Southern boy,” Gray said. “My bad.”
Former Tega Cay city hall and marina site
The first Tega Cay residents arrived more than 50 years ago, and they incorporated the city in 1982. For most of those early years, city functions operated out of the city hall building at Tega Cay Drive and Marina Drive. Marina Drive is a small horseshoe-shaped road off Tega Cay Drive that includes some homes and access to Tega Cay Marina.
Most city functions were moved further inland but council meetings remained at the site until the Glennon Center opened in 2008. Many in Tega Cay used the boat launch at the marina. But, city officials say, it’s not public despite the way it’s been historically used.
“The city does not have and never has had control of the boat launch at the marina,” Gray said.
Denton Marina Group owns and operates Tega Cay Marina.
County land records show the same company owns the former city hall site. The two homes on Marina Drive also are owned by Robert Leroy Denton Jr. They were purchased in 2018 and 2019.
The property swap voted on in September and now being amended was meant, Funderburk said, to make a portion of Marina Drive a private access for the marina. The portion that served homes would remain with the city. By conveying it, the city wouldn’t be responsible for maintaining what is largely an access for Tega Cay Marina.
Gray said boat ramp access questions aren’t the city’s to answer. As long as the launch remains open it has to be publicly accessible but the property owner can close it at any time for any duration. The owner could charge a fee, but hasn’t.
Councilman Tom Hyslip said Leroy Denton has owned the ramp 37 years and not only never charges to use it, but paid out-of-pocket to maintain it as a community asset.
“He’s been a good city partner,” Hyslip said.
Councilman Gus Matchunis said Denton could’ve closed the ramp two weeks or two years ago, and it wouldn’t have anything do to with the property swap.
The former city hall and marina properties are commercially zoned in what is almost entirely a residential area There’s a separate marina overlay district that covers the area. It’s that overlay in a comprehensive plan from more than a decade ago ,that mentions the option of a hotel.
City leaders insist that’s all there is to the hotel idea, but community concern has the city looking to a rule change in January to take out the possibility of one.
