St. John CZM Meeting Draws Blame and Praise

St. John residents had plenty to say to a team of federal evaluators who convened a meeting Thursday night to get public feedback on the territory’s Coastal Zone Management program.

CZM is a federally funded program administered locally by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources. It sets regulations and grants permits for development in areas designated as environmentally sensitive. It also is charged with monitoring projects and enforcing its own regulations.

Each member of the public had five minutes to express their opinions, which ranged in tone from accusatory to questioning to complimentary.

“CZM has a history of doing things that don’t make sense,” said community activist Pam Gaffin. “I can give many examples of projects that have been passed by CZM, and then federal agencies, like the Army Corp of Engineers, won’t permit them.”

Gaffin went on to give details about the Yacht Club at Summer’s End, a proposal for a luxury marina and retail development in Coral Bay that was approved by the St. John CZM Board in October 2014 but has been put on hold by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pending further study.

“Mega-developers have been able to get through whatever they want,” said Gaffin, who cited the approval of the Pond Bay Club, a resort in Chocolate Hole, which has declared bankruptcy three times since it was first proposed in 1987. Gaffin said the developers have not kept up their commitment to monitor sea turtle nesting activity and have never solved the environmental problems the project would engender.

Sharon Coldren, president of the Coral Bay Community Council, agreed.

“We’ve seen projects approved that should never have gotten past staff analysis,” she said.

CZM staff members study proposed projects and make recommendations for whether they should be approved, but it’s up to a local board of community members to decide whether a project can go forward or not.

Coldren called for greater transparency when permits are granted. All projects that are permitted should have large signage that can be easily read, she said, and when a citizen contacts CZM about a violation, “We need to know that CZM is following up and what the dispensation is. We need to know that there isn’t selective enforcement.”

Coldren said CZM needs greater powers of enforcement. “There are examples [of violations] that have gone on for years and years. If someone says, ‘Tough, I don’t want to do this,’ CZM has no teeth.”

David Silverman, a resident of Coral Bay who spent 15 years as a board member of a CZM committee on Long Island, New York, and worked as a planner for five years, agreed that transparency was an issue.

“There’s no notice when permits are sent in. There’s no online access to permits,” Silverman said.

For the public to review a permit, he said, “We have to go to the library and take photos on our phone.”

Silverman also brought up the issue of vacancies on the St. John CZM board, which must approve major developments. Regulations call for local committees to have five board members, but St. John has had two vacancies for years, and the terms of the three remaining members have all expired.

“The [St. John] CZM committee is inadequate,” Silverman continued.

Two of the three members acknowledged major conflicts of interest when a recent marina project was proposed. That project’s developers have not yet applied for a CZM permit, but if they were to do so, only one board member would be eligible to vote, according to Silverman.

Gary Ray, an environmental consultant, said, “We need to use the laws we have.” Ray said he was submitting written comments detailing examples of violations by builders, including bulldozers uprooting federally endangered species, and inadequate siltation fences allowing sediment to run off into the sea during rainstorms.

Christophena Todman, a business owner, also decried the run off.

“My father was born in 1914. He took us [children] around to appreciate the pristineness of St. John,” she said. “I’ve seen the beaches change. Now the silt is going into the sea. I see the damage. I can’t enjoy myself snorkeling anymore.”

She called for greater enforcement of earth change permits.

When CZM was created in 1979, staff drew up maps which designated certain areas, especially those along the shoreline, as Tier 1. Property within Tier 1 requires a comprehensive CZM review.

Gilbert Sprauve, a property owner who owns land within Tier 1, questioned the CZM evaluation team about their “awareness of the hoops we have to go through to take one-tenth of a property and put it on the market.” He said the permitting process for small landowners was “very onerous.”

Silverman suggested placing the entire island within Tier 1, perhaps excluding land owned by the National Park Service. This change would require property owners anywhere on the island to undergo the kind of scrutiny now required of those who own property near the shoreline.

The argument is it’s not just development along the coast that can affect the quality of water within our bays. On an island like St. John with its steep terrain, disturbance of the land uphill can lead to sediment running off and damaging coral reefs in bays hundreds of feet below the construction area.

Silverman said he’d like to see “CZM change the definition of those requiring a ‘major permit’ and those requiring a ‘minor permit,’ so all large construction (multi-unit residences, commercial, roadways) requires a major permit.”

Property owners building modest residences would only need to obtain a minor permit and would not be subjected to the kind of scrutiny required of major permit developments, unless they were within 200 feet of the shoreline or in close proximity to a drainage ghut.

“These changes could be effected by a change in the Tier 1 map, and some minor changes to the CZM code,” Silverman said.

Jean-Pierre Oriel, CZM director, said this proposal has been a common thread at the CZM meetings held throughout the territory this past week. He said CZM regulations are almost 40 years old and can be updated.

“That’s what this [evaluation] program is about,” he said.

However, “Going to a Tier 1 system would require a legislative change,” said Oriel. “I’ve been here 18 years, and I’ve heard about the Tier 1 system, but there may be as many against it as in favor.”

Oriel suggested holding more engagement meetings to explore the topic.

A change to an island-wide Tier 1 system also would require additional federal funding, Oriel said.

“We already have a great many things to do with under a million dollars in funding. We’d need to do a cost-benefit analysis. Presumably, a lot more projects would come under the CZM review process,” he said.

A further concern is staffing. DPNR has been looking for a replacement for St. John’s special projects coordinator, who resigned last May. DPNR advertised for a month for an environmental planner or specialist to facilitate the processing of applications and inspect permitted and unpermitted sites.

“Ideally, we’d like to fill this post with someone who lives on St. John,” said Oriel. “The people that responded did not have the technical background.”

He added that if no one can be found on St. John, the position will be filled by someone who resides on St. Thomas.

Silverman ended the meeting with praise for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dawn Henry, CZM Director Jean-Pierre Oriol, and other members of the staff.

“They’re very accessible, and they return emails,” he said.