Home News Local news St. John CZM OKs Summer’s End Marina Development

St. John CZM OKs Summer’s End Marina Development

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A developers sketch of the proposed Summer's End project.Despite an outcry from residents and others against Summer’s End plan to build a 145-slip marina in Coral Bay, the St. John Coastal Zone Management Committee approved the project when it met Wednesday at the Legislature building on St. John.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it works out for the best,” CZM member Edmond Roberts said after the meeting.

He and committee chairman Andrew Penn Sr. voted yes on both the land and water applications. The committee’s third member, Brion Morrisette, abstained on both because he had represented one of the applicants and held a lease on one of the parcels to be used in the development. Morrisette said that if he didn’t attend the meeting, the committee wouldn’t have a quorum and the project would be approved by default.

Roberts said he struggled with his decision but decided it was for the good of the Virgin Islands to have the marina development go forward so it could generate revenue for the local government.

From left, CZM members Brion Morrisette, Andrew Penn and Edmond Roberts discuss the proposal.“And Coral Harbor has changed dramatically in my lifetime. The marina is a minor change,” he said.

As for allowing Summer’s End to take over management of the moorings that now sit in Coral Bay, as well as add 75 additional moorings, Roberts said the harbor at Coral Bay could use some organization.

Penn said he read all 300 plus letters sent to him opposing the marina but he said he envisions Coral Bay as a “super harbor” that would put St. John on a par with other destinations that have commercial dockage.

“It’s the one remaining area for development,” he said, adding that he sees it as a step toward the island’s future.

Chaliese Summers, who with Rick Barksdale and Robert O’Connor Jr., is a principal in the Summer’s End group, said after the meeting that they worked extremely hard with the Planning and Natural Resources Department, with the community and various agencies to move the project forward.

More than three dozen people, many of them Coral Bay area residents, attended the meeting to hear in person what the CZM would do. At the Aug. 20 public hearing on the matter and in numerous letters to the editor and through other efforts, they mainly complained that the scope of the project was too large and it was located in a spot that was vulnerable to storm damage. They also objected to the noise from driving 1,300 pilings for the marina, claiming that it will drive away the area’s lucrative vacation villa business as well as send customers scurrying from the handful of restaurants in the area.

The residents sat through the vote on the land portion of the application that would redevelop several building along Route 107 that include the long-closed Voyages building, the Island Blues building and Cocoloba shopping center. However, a few began filing out as soon as Penn started reading the conditions recommended by the CZM staff for the marina portion.

Outside the Legislature building, they gathered in small knots of people to discuss the CZM decision.

Summer’s End principal Rick Barksdale, environmental consultant Amy Dempsey and Summer’s End principal Chaliese Summers listen to the proceedings.“It’s extremely disappointing,” Coral Bay Community Council President Sharon Coldren said.

She said this is the first time in her 11 years of following St. John CZM Committee votes that the members didn’t request any modifications.

The CZM members accepted the CZM staff recommendations that the applications be approved with some conditions.

“The proposed development is consistent with the CZM act,” Penn said.

Many of the conditions for both the land and water portions are similar to those imposed on all projects, such as the need to get all territorial and federal permits, including a required permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Included in the water conditions is a provision that the developer can only drive pilings from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They can work on land projects until 5 p.m. In both instances, they can’t work on Sundays.

The developer must also provide shuttle service for the crews working on the land portion and bathrooms for those doing the marina work. They can’t remove mangroves and if they need to trim them, they must get a permit from the Planning and Natural Resources Fish and Wildlife Division.

The conditions also mandate that boaters using the marina must use the pump out facilities and fuel pumps must have automatic shut off nozzles.

For both land and water permits, Summer’s End must post a performance bond of 20 percent, or as much as $5 million, which is the estimated cost of construction. The developer also must maintain a $2 million default bond so the area can be returned to its original state if they don’t complete the project.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Coral Bay can kiss their quiet, sleepy way of life GOOD-BYE with this pronouncement. When is CZM going to stop saying “YES” to these projects that impacts our waters, our corals, our reefs, our sea-grass beds and our marine life and start PROTECTING them?
    A 145 slip marina is entirely too large for Coral Bay and it’s proposed location. Not to mention the fact that 2 men should not be deciding the fate for Coral Bay. Brion Morrisette should not even be allowed on the board voting this issue due to the HUGE CONFLICT OF INTEREST!

    So I guess these people on the CZM Board do not notice the turn-around in businesses and restaurants at Yacht Haven Grand with all its slips or the fact that they stay empty 3/4’s of the year?

    Tourists are not coming to the VI for marinas and Dolphinariums. They are coming for our natural beauty and our reefs and marine life in its natural environment and unless we offer a clean, safe and affordable product, they’ll go elsewhere like St. Maarten where there is no mega marina or dolphinarium.
    Good Luck St. John and Coral Bay.
    They have doomed you and sold us all out!
    ONCE AGAIN!

    Tell CZM to stop selling us out!
    If we wished to live in Miami Beach or Condado, we’d live there. It would be a darned sight cheaper than living here in the VI with what our dollar can buy but appearently CZM is all too willing to sell us out at every turn and ruin our fragile environment in the process. It’s got to stop!

  2. The CZM commission went with the recommendations of the CZM staff. Who is reviewing these permit applications? What expertise do they have in natural resource evaluation and management? How is NOAA going to react when the federal funding agency learns that money they have spent in evaluating and rectifying conditions in Coral Bay will have gone to waste due to a development that is not, in fact, in keeping with the US Coastal Zone Management Act?

  3. I agree with you comments except abut St. Maarten….you obviously have not been there recently. St. Maarten is completely over developed with no concern with protecting
    waterfront development. St. Maarten is a dump. Please do not compare to our islands.

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