CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga. — After years of trying to bring a Spaceport to Camden County, Georgia Governor Kemp has signed legislation to end the authority responsible for purchasing the land.
Representative Steven Sainz (R-St. Marys) introduced a bill to repeal the authority, which was signed into law this week. It comes after the Camden County Board of Commissioners voted to dissolve the authority in March of this year.
As a realtor in St Marys, Monique Garrett knows the value of development.
“I understand the importance of projects like this because it does bring publicity and awareness to our area, which can bring jobs," Monique Garrett, a realtor with St Marys Realty, said.
But, she’s also aware of the challenges that come with large-scale projects.
“What is the infrastructure impact going to be on a smaller community like ours so I can understand the pros and cons," Garrett said.
The proposed Camden County Spaceport has been discussed for years. In 2019, commissioners created the Camden County Spaceport Authority to purchase the land for the Spaceport.
But in 2022, more than 70% of voters rejected the Spaceport in a referendum vote. That same year, the owner of the large industrial site on the Georgia coast where the Spaceport was planned said it had ended a longstanding agreement to sell the property to a county government,
In 2023, a grand jury in Camden County issued subpoenas after county leaders refused to release financial documents in the over $10 million effort to bring a spaceport to coastal Georgia County.
Commissioner Jim Goodman, who spoke out against the Spaceport, says that money is gone.
“Legal fees and to consultants, numerous consultants, it's gone," Jim Goodman, the District 4 Camden County Commissioner, said. “There's no way to recover that money. That was another pipe dream that was chased for a while”
After Georgia Governor Kemp signed legislation repealing the Camden County Spaceport Authority, a spokesperson with the board of commissioners sent this statement saying:
"We appreciate Governor Kemp's decision to sign the law dissolving the Camden County Spaceport Authority, effective July 1, 2024. We, the Board, recognized there was no longer a need for the authority and voted to dissolve it. Subsequently, Representative Sainz then carried forward this initiative until it reached Governor Kemp's desk. We thank Governor Kemp for his leadership and look forward to collaborating on future initiatives."
As for any future possibility of the project, Goodman says it's practically impossible for it to come back to life.
“The likelihood of somebody coming into town and saying they're going to launch a rocket from Camden County is, I think I would win Powerball lottery before that happened," Goodman said.
Goodman also tells me the site owner no longer has an agreement to sell the property to the county.