In hopes of convincing residents that Bay Associates, builder of the Grande Bay condominium development on the Cruz Bay waterfront, should get its requested rezoning, developer Kelly Frye held a pubic meeting Thursday to outline the plans. But residents and the one set of owners at the meeting were having trouble buying it.
"We're a little embarrassed to be part of this. We've learned how hard it is for the whole island," owner Jennifer Harrington of Minneapolis said.
Grande Bay owners went to court after Bay Isles tried to change the terms of their purchase agreements. Harrington said that Bay Isles didn't deliver what it promised.
"I come with a lot of bitterness and anger," Harrington said.
About 15 people attended the meeting held at the Marketplace shopping center.
Bay Isles wants a rezoning from Waterfront-1 to R-4, residential medium density, for a triangular-shaped parcel about one-third of an acre in size. It sits adjacent to two parcels totaling one acre. Bay Isles built 48 condominium units on the larger parcels, already zoned R-4. Frye said all the other surrounding parcels are zoned R-4.
Essentially, the company needs the rezoning so it can presell the six units Frye said it plans to complete on the parcel to help with financing. It's a complicated situation that begins with Bay Isle's need to consolidate the properties, which is not allowed under the territory's laws when parcels are zoned differently. Frye said it needs to consolidate the properties so it can sell the six units as condominiums, the same status as the 48 units already constructed. If the company can't sell the six units as condominiums, Frye said the only option was fractionalized ownership, but they can't be presold to raise money.
"And we can't do fractionalized ownership because those 48 unit owners want condos," Fry said.
The shell of the building that will hold the six units is up, but interior work is not done, Frye said.
Bay Isles asked for a rezoning in 2005 for the same parcel of land, but then-Gov. Charles Turnbull vetoed the Senate's OK of the matter.
The development sits at the Cruz Bay waterfront on property that was exempted from the provisions of the Coastal Zone Management process by senators who wrote the law decades ago. Work began before the Department of Planning and Natural Resources started requiring Group Dwelling Permits, so did not go throughout any public hearing process.
According to Frye, the company has reduced the number of units from 14 to six and also eliminated the lofts that make the other 48 units tower over the neighbor's homes.
"It's out of goodwill and trying to do the right thing," he said.
In addition to a suit by the owners, Bay Isle is also in court because Grande Bay blocks neighbors' views. After St. John resident Don Porter asked what Bay would do to "make it right" for neighbors who lost their view because the 48 units intrude, Frye said that the company was building as allowed by territorial law.
Neighbors took him to court on that matter, but Frye declined to comment other than to say that residents only knew about a small part of that whole story. In discussing the same matter, St. John resident Myrtle Barry said that another St. John resident, Doris Jadan, died because she "couldn't see the water." Jadan had a long-running battle with Bay Isles over various issues, including the view, and her heirs are the ones in court with Bay Isles over the view issue.
"If you want goodwill, cut off two levels and bring it down so the neighbors can see," Barry said.
After St. John resident Lorelei Monsanto stood up to talk about "paradise lost," and the fact that the island is filling with "grandiose" homes and condominium projects like Grande Bay way beyond the financial reach of most full-time residents, Harrington had more to say.
"You cannot go into somebody's community and take over," she said to Frye, tearing up as she made her remarks.
To Monsanto, who is the president of the Unity Day Group, she said that it was important that someone was there to stick up for the land.
Earlier, Monsanto had explained that the Unity Day Group's purpose was to work for the good of St. John residents who are being squeezed off the island because of rising property taxes and ferry fares.
St. John resident Cristi Lankard, who is in sales, complained that frequent visitors told her they weren't coming back to St. John because developments like Grande Bay ruined the Cruz Bay ambience they so loved.
After listening to complaints from residents, St. John resident Robert O'Connor Jr. stood up to say that those who don't want Bay Isles to get a rezoning would deprive the company of its rights.
"I'm going to support progress," O'Connor said.
Monsanto countered by saying that development was good, but that the island's infrastructure can't handle the extent of building on St. John.
"We are going to be fighting back," she said.
Frye pointed out that Bay Isles is under new management, and he has moved full-time to the island and invested in the property.
The Grande Bay rezoning request will be heard by St. John's CZM Committee at 6 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Legislature building.