Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen’s request that a temporary restraining order be issued against the National Park Service’s efforts to turn a downtown Christiansted parking lot into a park was granted in federal court Wednesday — but with a caveat.
District Court Judge Raymond Finch said that by Oct. 6, Hansen and her attorney, Amelia Joseph, must prove "once and for all" that the V.I. government holds title to the property that houses the Christiansted National Historic Site.
Hansen is opposing the Park Service’s plan to turn a 12-space parking lot between the Scale House and the wall that surrounds the Post Office into a park. If the Park Service has its way, the asphalt area will be replaced by a 4,200-square-foot lawn with an information kiosk, benches and palm trees.
The project will complete the Park Service’s controversial move of April 1998 that turned the 70-space King’s Wharf lot into a grassy park. That project spurred similar protests from former Gov. Roy Schneider, who also claimed the V.I. government owned the property.
The title debate was in front of Finch last year in a case about shoreline access. But the Park Service and the Schneider administration settled their differences before the issue was resolved. Finch said that at that time, "reams" of documents were presented that weighed heavily in favor of the Park Service as owner of the property.
In the latest parking lot flap, Joseph and Hansen argued that the Park Service didn’t gain needed approval from the St. Croix Historical Preservation Committee or State Historic Preservation Officer Dean Plaskett before it began tearing up asphalt. Hansen argued further that the V.I. government owns the property. She also said that the Park Service’s removal of parking areas in downtown Christiansted is hurting the local economy.
Finch, however, said the Park Service complied with the law. Nonetheless, he gave Joseph and Hansen leeway, saying that if he were to rule only on their request for injunctive relief, they "would be out on their heads."
Instead, he said he ordered the TRO because of "significant community interest" in the title issue.
"The National Park Service has complied with federal law. They did what they were supposed to do. Technically nothing else is required," Finch said. "That says nothing in regard to the legal question of title."
William Cissel, chief of cultural resources for the Park Service’s St. Croix unit, contended that once the Virgin Islands were transferred to the U.S. in 1917, all Danish government holdings became property of the federal government.
"Danish Crown properties were transferred to the federal government…," he said. "All the buildings in the Christiansted National Historic Site were exempted from transfer to the local government."
Finch told Joseph that he wants "once and for all to establish title."
"If you don’t do it, the Park Service will be allowed to put in what it wants," he said to the plaintiffs. "The only thing that can get a different result is title."
The Park Service’s removal of parking areas in the Christiansted National Historic Site is part of its 1986 General Management Plan. At that point, a deal between the Park Service and the territory allowed the V.I. government two years to find alternative parking sites. From 1986 to 1989 two efforts were made. One was the current government lot at the corner of Strand and Kings Cross Streets. The other plan was a multi-level parking structure that never materialized.