suggestions. (Screenshot of Territorial Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan website)
St. John’s picture-perfect Honeymoon Beach changed after retail outlets were added. Some people rejoiced at having food and drink options, chaise loungers and drive-in service via sandy Salomon Bay Road. Others, like this article’s author, found their quiet, pack-a-picnic paradise polluted — sullied and desanctified — by familiar sugary drinks for sale and amplified guitar strumming to endure. Well, for the first time, there’s an official real-time place to give our love-it or hate-it feedback.
The VI Division of Territorial Parks and Protected Areas, part of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, has launched the website USVIOutdoors.com. The site collects information from locals and tourists alike to catalogue what people value in outdoor recreation and, fittingly, places for conservation.
The new project, launched Wednesday, supports development of a 2026–2036 Territorial Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. Or, in the character-conservative language of recreational government acronyms, DPNR’s VIDTPPA is creating a 2026-2036 TCORP, according to a media release from the Horsely Witten Group, the Massachusetts-based environmental consulting firm hired to spearhead the effort.
“The online platform marks a key step in the public engagement process for the TCORP, providing tools for island residents and visitors to share how they use outdoor recreation and conservation areas. It features two separate surveys: a traditional public opinion survey for feedback on recreation habits, preferred amenities, and access to parks, trails, and waterfront spaces, and an interactive ‘Survey123’ web map for “location-specific input,” according to the release.
Users can drop a digital pin on the interactive map, leave comments tied to specific sites, suggest improvements and amenities, or lodge pleas to protect an area from commercial use and noise pollution. Maybe something like: Please, in the name of all that is holy, leave Salomon Beach alone.
The project starts with a comprehensive inventory of what people consider recreational sites. Docks, fishing piers, trails, parks, ballparks and courts, sports complexes, recreation centers, walking paths, shade trees, picnic spots, camp grounds, waterfronts, sailing areas, snorkel-friendly no-wake zones, quiet bays, meditative outposts, peaceful non-commercial be-quiet sandy hideouts where no one jangles acoustic guitar classic rock or tries to sell you something, etc.
The data will help inform the territory’s spending on such sites through 2036. Much like the Comprehensive Land and Water Use Plan, the website says residents’ feedback for the recreation and conservation plan is vital.
The website also includes a recap of the Virgin Islands TCORP Five-Year Action Plan 2014-2019, noting the success and failure of efforts across the territory.
In St. Croix, the Paul E. Joseph Stadium remains 40% complete, according to the report, while a plan to develop Altona Lagoon went nowhere. The Estate Profit Basketball Courts were completed, as was the Reinholdt Jackson Recreational Complex and the Rudy Krieger Sports Complex.
In the St. Thomas-St. John-Water Island District, lighting installation at Emil Griffith Ball Park was not yet finished, the Lionel Richards Ball Park still didn’t have a functional concession stand, and the Oppenheimer Beach Restrooms and Concession idea had only recently gone out to bid, according to the report.
The Fairchild Lookout Point Park and the Cruz Bay Tennis Courts and Restrooms were completed. The Cruz Bay Recreation Center was in the planning stage. And, to some folks chagrin and others’ delight, concessions and restrooms at Honeymoon Beach were no longer operational.
