May 24, 2003 – The head of the Senate Planning and Environmental Protection Committee abruptly ended Friday's night meeting about renovations of the former Ramada Yacht Haven on St. Thomas. About a half-hour into the meeting, Committee Chairman Louis Patrick Hill apologized to the proposed developers of the plan for ending the meeting so suddenly. Hill later said he would reschedule the hearing for next week after he digested the contents of a legal analysis he received moments before the hearing.
A yacht club/commercial complex and marina has been proposed by Insignia Nautica (IN-USVI) to replace the dilapidated hotel, an upscale destination for yachtsmen and boaters during the 1970s. The Planning and Environmental Protection Committee is charged with reviewing all bills relating to land use and development.
Hill is among the lawmakers who have expressed an eagerness to see the development get under way in recent weeks, but he said he needed time to review the report submitted by the Legislature's chief legal counsel, Yvonne Tharpes.
"Based on the fact that I got a 31-page legal analysis that raises serious challenges to the permit and the lease, I couldn't go forward with the deal," Hill said.
Tharpes pointed out that the CZM permit granted to IN-USVI includes 20,469 acres of submerged land as part of a lease agreement. A previous agreement reached in 1985 granted an occupancy permit to Virgin Islands Yacht Harbor Inc., and that, said Tharpes, represents an important difference.
Along with the matter of property rights is the fact that federal mandates call for the protection of natural resources existing in submerged trust lands.
Other concerns are expressed over the length of the lease for filled land, where the land portion of the Yacht Haven Development is slated to be built. The proposed lease calls for a term of 90 years, which Tharpes calls "patently illegal."
She also questioned the legality of allowing a permit to go through to IN-USVI at a time when it appears to factor in to a massive corporate deal involving Insignia Financial Group Inc., a real estate service company specializing in investments and land deals.
The legal counsel raised the possibility that once the deal goes through, IN-USVI may no longer have a continuing legal interest in Yacht Haven, as required by the CZM.
"The Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Act provides for the issuance of permits for the development and occupancy of trust lands and other submerged lands. Reading the most salient provisions in "pari materia," it is clear that the commissioner or the appropriate committee of the CZM Commission is authorized to grant only permits for the occupancy and development of submerged lands. The CZM Act provides no authority for the grant of a property right in submerged lands," Tharpes wrote.
Several days ago, press reports quoted the committee chairman as he signaled officials of the Turnbull administration that he would not be willing to rush the permit process out of concerns that details contained in the CZM permit might delay construction at Yacht Haven if anything was wrong. Tharpes' analysis seemed to bear out some of those concerns. At the heart of her objections was a recurrent theme seen in other deals between developers and the V.I. government, issues concerning the right of the government to lease submerged public trust lands.
Stunned participants in the Friday night hearing milled around the Earle B. Ottley Legislative Chamber after a challenge to the chair over adjourning the hearing died in a tie vote. Most said they had never seen a Senate proceeding shut so suddenly.
Senator Carlton Dowe said he didn't think it fair that Hill dismissed the session after IN-USVI representatives had traveled from different parts of the country to attend. He also felt that other attorneys involved in the permitting process should have been given a chance to address the objections raised by the Senate's legal counsel.
"We're in a stagnated economy. We're asking people to invest," Dowe said. "Just like the legal counsel for the Legislature spoke, the DPNR attorney is also a government employee. Let them counter what the legal counsel of the Legislature put on record and then hold it to whatever else the committee had deemed in the interest of the people to do."
Opinions among the audience differed as sharply as they did among committee members. Edith Bornn of the Save Long Bay Coalition said, "I'm very pleased that Attorney Tharpes had the gumption to come forward as she had. I respect her opinion and it's an opinion that we all should look into before another step is taken. For that I respect the chairman, Senator Hill, for taking that position."
St. Thomas real estate broker George Blackhall couldn't disagree more, apparently angered about Friday night's proceedings. "This is skullduggery. It's inappropriate. You come to a business relationship, you do due diligence and you deliver your data. If you have an objection or if there is a deficiency, that division should have gone back further, not in a grandstand. It's to show up Senator Hill, make a fool of him," he said.
Tharpes declined to comment for the record after the hearing.
Ronald Uretta, president and chief operating officer of Insignia ESG, was among those who came to St. Thomas for the committee meeting. He also declined to comment on the chairman's action.
On Saturday, a source close to Government House said that Governor Charles W. Turnbull has called a special session of the Legislature on Tuesday to address the matter.
Publisher's note : Like the St. Thomas Source now? Find out how you can love us twice as much — and show your support for the islands' free and independent news voice … click here.
