The 35th Legislature approved and adopted the years-in-the-making Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan as the territory’s guiding document for the future of development in the U.S. Virgin Islands during a marathon session on Wednesday.
The plan was among a slate of bills lawmakers special ordered to the floor on Wednesday. Another of those was an act appropriating nearly $3 million from the government’s Indirect Cost Fund to the V.I. Management and Budget Office, Personnel Division and departments of Finance and Property and Procurement to cover operating expenses for the current fiscal year.
That measure was also reserved for non-germane amendments, and lawmakers attached a baker’s dozen of those in an effort to clean up language in previously enacted bills and free up restricted funding for University of the Virgin Islands programs, among other reasons. The two most contentious proposed amendments both came from Sen. Ray Fonseca.
The first of those allows the Government Hospital and Health Facilities Corporation Territorial Board to favorably vote on matters by simple majority of confirmed board members. Fonseca said the board currently has nine members rather than the required 15 and has been “mostly unable to achieve a quorum.”
Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory contested the issue, saying that approving the measure meant the governor of the Virgin Islands would be able to stop sending appointees to the Legislature for confirmation.
“We cannot accommodate a request like this,” she said. The amendment was narrowly approved in a 7-6 vote.
The second amendment would have altered the boundary of the Charlotte Amalie Historic District on St. Thomas to exclude certain properties beginning at the intersection of Borger Gade and Prinsesse Gade and proceeding east to Torvet State and Wimmelskafts Gade.
The measure drew fierce pushback from Sen. Carla Joseph, who pointed out that lawmakers hadn’t received any input from the V.I. Historic Preservation Commission.
“‘Historic’ means something significant happened in that location — something important occurred, the structure is a treasure to the people of the Virgin Islands, the building is important to our history,” Fonseca responded, saying the measure would prevent gentrification.
Joseph then questioned the specificity of the measure.
“I am interested in knowing the listing of all of the landowners in that area that we are going to be excluding,” she said. “OK? Because we can’t do things that are just for some. We have to work with things for all.”
The amendment failed — “miserably,” Senate President Novelle Francis Jr. noted — without a single vote in favor.
While lawmakers mostly breezed through items on Wednesday’s full agenda, two attempts at extending the local state of emergency declared last April in response to the territory’s power and energy crisis failed. A motion to special order the measure on Wednesday afternoon was unsuccessful. Later, the extension was added to the session’s final voting block, where it failed in a 6-7 vote.
Lawmakers approved two overrides pertaining to measures vetoed by the executive branch, including one repealing and reenacting provisions related to abandoned vehicles. Lt. Gov. Tregenza Roach vetoed the measure earlier this month, explaining in a transmittal letter to the Legislature that existing statutes already addressed the issue and that the measure could further strain an overburdened V.I. Police Department.
Roach also line-item vetoed sections of Bill No. 35-0412, which the Legislature approved during its last session in November. Though principally about the “management of public property and procurement and sale of goods and services,” lawmakers attached a non-germane amendment to the measure last month limiting the governor of the Virgin Islands’ ability to use funds received through the government’s settlement agreements with the estate of Jeffrey Epstein and Leon Black during states of emergency.
The veto was overridden on Wednesday.
Separately, lawmakers approved a measure appropriating $20 million from those funds toward the design of nursing and eldercare facilities on St. Croix and St. Thomas.
Lawmakers also approved the nominations of three Virgin Islanders to key positions. Those included Tahmin Clarke’s nomination to the Government Employees’ Retirement System board of trustees, representing St. Thomas; Aubrey Ruan’s nomination to the Coastal Zone Management Commission for the district of St. Croix; and Mario Brooks to the role of V.I. Police Department Commissioner.
Approved measures:
Zonings and Coastal Zone Management Permits:
Bill No. 35-0401 – An Act amending Official Zoning Map No. STZ-10 for the island of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands rezoning Parcel No. 41-51-1 Estate Frydenhoj, No. 3 Red Hook Quarter St. Thomas from R-2 (Residential-Low Density-One and Two Family) to B-4 (Business-Residential)
Bill No. 35-0404 – An Act ratifying the Governor’s approval of Minor Coastal Zone Permit No. CZMIW0001-23 issued to Coakley Plantation, LLLP for the installation and the submerged lands occupancy of two 224’ long and 3” OD HDPE pipes in approximately 6’-7’ of water to be used as an intake and brine discharge for a reverse osmosis plant
Bill No. 35-0406 – An Act amending Official Zoning Map No. STZ-10 for the island of St. Thomas to rezone Parcel No. 3J-1A Estate Mariendahl, No. 4 Red Hook Quarte, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, from R-2 (Residential-Low Density-One and Two Family) to B-2 (Business Secondary/Neighborhood)
Bill No. 35-0407 – An Act amending Official Zoning Map No. STZ-10 for the island of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, to rezone Parcel No. N-1-Remainder of Tract 1 Estate Nazareth, No. 1 Red Hook Quarter, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, from R-2 (Residential-Low-Density-One and Two Family) to P (Public)
Bill No. 35-0421 – An Act amending Official Zoning Map No. SCZ-11 to rezone Plot No. 13-A Combined Estate Hogensborg, West End Quarter, St. Croix from R-1 (Residential-Low Density) to R-2 (Residential-Low Density-One and Two Family) and Remainder of Parcel No. 4 Combined Estate Hogensborg, West End Quarter, St. Croix be rezone from R-1 (Residential-Low Density) to B-3 (Business-Scattered) to allow for a mixed-used development
Bill No. 35-0422 – An Act ratifying Minor Coastal Zone Permit No. CZMIW0002-23 issued to 555 Madison Investors V, LLC for the installation of a 408 sq. ft. dock and a four-inch reverse osmosis intake line on and seaward of Plot 7W Estate Nazareth, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Bill No. 35-0424 – An Act ratifying Major Coastal Zone Permit No. CZT-06-21 (L&W) issued to Jack Rock B-A C, LLC for the development of a marina facility consisting of a restaurant, dock, moorings, wave attenuator, storage, and services yard, warehouse building, the dredging of 7,200 yards of material, and the use and occupancy of 45.83 acres of submerged land located on and seaward of Parcel No. 3 (Consolidated 9B-A), Estate Nazareth, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Bills:
Bill No. 35-0108 – An Act appropriating $20,000,000 from the Settlement Agreement between the Government of the Virgin Islands and the Estate of Jeffrey E. Epstein; Darren K. Indyke, in his individual capacity and in his capacity as the Co-Executor for the Estate of Jeffrey E. Epstein and Administrator of The 1953 Trust; Richard D. Kahn, in his individual capacity and in his capacity as Co-Executor of the Estate of Jeffery E. Epstein and Administrator of the 1953 Trust; The 1953 Trust; Plan D, LLC; Great St. James, LLC; Nautilus, Inc.; Hyperion Air, LLC; Poplar, Inc.; Southern Trust Company, Inc.; Maple, Inc; and Laurel, Inc. (collectively Defendants) to the Department of Human Services for the design and construction of a nursing home on St. Croix and nursing home on St. Thomas
Bill No. 35-0179 – An Act amending Title 14 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 61, relating to gambling violations, and Title 32 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 13, relating to the Virgin Islands Lottery Commission, to strengthen the enforcement tools against illegal gambling and lottery
Bill No. 35-0224 – An Act amending Title 19, part V, chapter 45, subchapter VI to increase access to behavioral health services, with a focus on a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team to provide mobile crisis intervention services, and the 9-8-8 telecommunication system
Bill No. 35-0254 – An Act amending Title 27 Virgin Islands Code by adding 21A establishing the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Interstate Compact
Bill No. 35-0295 – An Act amending Title 19 Virgin Islands Code, part III, chapter 29 requiring the Virgin Islands Department of Health to establish and administer the “Virgin Islands Prescription Drug Monitoring Program” to provide prescription drug monitoring, and for other related purposes
Bill No. 35-0336 – An Act amending Title 5 Virgin Islands Code, subtitle 3, part I by establishing the Office of Conflict Counsel, granting personal immunity to individuals providing legal representation or services to indigent defendants, and making an appropriation to establish the Office of Conflict Counsel
Bill No. 35-0399 – An Act amending Title 16 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 2, section 99 establishing a mandatory minimum bail amount in domestic violence cases
Bill No. 35-0408 – An Act requiring the Department of Health and the Department of Planning and Natural Resources to develop and administer a Territorial Regulated Medical Waste Management Plan including the requisite regulations
Bill No. 35-0409 – An Act to amend Title 20 Virgin Islands Code, part II, chapter 32, subchapter I to amend the definition of “salvage vehicle purchaser” or “junk vehicle purchaser” to include businesses that includes junk and salvage vehicle businesses and insurance companies and to require salvage vehicle purchasers to file a report with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles that documents the salvage vehicles obtained and sold during a given time period, and to require a penalty for failure to file the report
Bill No. 35-0430 – A Resolution honoring and commending the St. Croix Alumnae Chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated for its numerous contributions to the people of the Virgin Islands and in recognition for the 50th anniversary of its chapter
Bill No. 35-0410 – An Act honoring and commending Mr. Salvador “Sal” Sanpere for his dedication and contribution to St. Croix by naming the Christiansted boardwalk in his honor
Bill No. 35-0411 – An Act honoring and commending Georgia Francis for her community service and for her contributions to the youth of the Virgin Islands in the area of music and renaming the portion of Rumer Drive beginning at Mandela Circle and continuing to the bottom of the Dorothy “Dotsy” Lockhart-Elskoe Drive, the “Georgia Francis Drive”
Bill No. 35-0419 – An Act amending Title 27 Virgin Islands Code, chapter 1A by establishing the Virgin Islands Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology
Bill No. 35-0420 – An Act amending Title 23, Virgin Islands Code, chapter 5 by enacting the “Virgin Islands Firearm Serial Number Regulation Act”
Bill No. 35-0423 – An Act approving the Fifth Amendment to Lease Agreement between the Government of the Virgin Islands and Coral World (V.I.) Inc. to extend the lease term, provide for additional rent, and incorporate two surveys reflecting the metes and bounds description of the leased premises
Bill No. 35-0425 – An Act to amend various sections of Title 5 Virgin Islands Code and update various outdated sections to conform to current law and practice including replacing the District Court and the United States Attorney with the Superior Court and the Attorney General, respectively, as applicable
Bill No. 35-0427 – An Act requiring the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority to conduct a feasibility study, including a cost analysis, for the installation of a sewer line from Five Corners to Villa La Reine, St. Croix.
Bill No. 35-0418 – An Act amending Title 27 of the Virgin Islands Code, by adding chapter 1A relating to the practice of audiology and speech-language pathology; establishing qualifications for licensure as an audiologist and speech-language pathologist and establishing qualifications for certification as an audiology assistant and speech-language pathologist assistant, and for other related purposes
Bill No. 35-0428 – An Act appropriating $2,930,870 from the Indirect Cost Fund in the fiscal year October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025, for the operating expenses of the Office of Management and Budget, the Virgin Islands Division of Personnel, and the Virgin Islands Departments of Finance and Property and Procurement
Bill No. 35-0426 – An Act authorizing the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority to sell electricity to any beneficiary in the Virgin Islands South Shore Trade Zone without regulation by the Public Services Commission of the Virgin Islands
Bill No. 35-0431 – An Act adopting the 2024 Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan submitted by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources to the 35th Legislature of the Virgin Islands on December 10, 2024, as the Official Virgin Islands Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan and establishing legislative oversight on the plan’s policy, direction and goal
Nominations:
Tahmin O. Clarke – Government Employees Retirement System board of trustees, district of St. Thomas
Aubrey L. Ruan – V.I. Coastal Zone Management Commission, district of St. Croix
Mario Brooks – V.I. Police Department Commissioner
