State proposal would let Sheraton keep easement on river

The state has a proposal would allow the Sheraton hotel to keep its contested easement to the Trent River - and New Bern aldermen agreed Tuesday night to support the proposal.

The State Property Office has proposed reissuing an easement to the hotel, but this time using a different North Carolina statute to support that decision.

The state would lean on N.C. General Statute 146-11, which says that the state Department of Administration "may grant easements ... for the purpose of cooperating with the federal government, utilizing the natural resources of the State or serving the public interest."

The statute says the Department of Administration can "fix," or decide, the terms that are attached to the easement.

It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether such an easement would allow hotel owner Soleil Group Inc. or its associated entity, Marina Ventures LLC, to market its 250 boat slips on the Trent River. Those slips have been advertised at more than $100,000 each.

 It is clear that the state is willing to grant the hotel a new easement under an older statute, but only with the city's blessing.

That's because the city has acknowledged ownership of the 30-foot strip of waterfront land that is tied to the easement.

"My concern is that we need to have the same terms and conditions attached to the (reissued) easement," City Attorney Scott Davis said.

The statute under which the contested easement was granted has more specific language that the one that the state is looking at to solve this controversy.

The newer statute says that an easement goes with "specifically described adjacent riparian ... property" and that it is good for 50 years before it must be renewed. That statute also provides specific rights for the public and limits the rights of the easement holder, among other conditions.

City leaders approved a resolution Tuesday saying that the Board of Adermen "does not object" to a "substitution ... easement containing the same terms and conditions" as the current easement as long as it "will not alter the parties' rights, interests and obligations."

Tuesday's decision could be the end of a months-long battle for water rights in New Bern.

The easement matter was brought to the state's attention by a nonprofit group known as New Bern Citizens for Active Waterfronts and Recreational Environments.

The group, which calls itself New Bern AWARE, contends that the hotel should not be able to sell boat slips without easement rights - and that those rights are attached only to the waterfront strip.

The state ruled in the spring that the current easement that the hotel has was issued on the basis of a "mistake of fact" as to who owns the waterfront land.

Since that April ruling, discussions of this matter have continued.