Chief Planner, Mr Gregory W. Adams said property owners will have to find ways of getting information and being represented on the matter of the Carrot Bay Community Development Project. Photo: VINO

One of the challenges the Town and Country Planning Department was faced with at the community meeting held on November 19, 2013 at the Abraham Leonard Community Centre was that the greater number of persons who signed a petition that resulted in the re-visiting of the Carrot Bay Community Development Project (CBCDP) are not currently residing in the Virgin Islands (VI). Photo: VINO

One resident said property owners residing overseas should make the time to be present at meetings on the proposed Carrot Bay Community Development Project as they often find themselves home during national elections. Photo: VINO

This was one of the challenges that Chief Planner, Mr Gregory W. Adams said the Department has been faced with but is not prepared to stifle the process because of the absence of the petitioners to voice their own concerns.

Apologising for using the phrase “not from here”, Mr Adams said land owners in the area demarcated for the DBCDP will have to find ways and means of being represented. “….to suggest that I would stop this process until all of them coming on board in this fashion is asking a lot,” said Mr Adams.

His remarks were prompted when one resident took to the microphone and said government needed to do a follow-up meeting to discuss the proposed project because most of the persons directly affected were not present at the time.

Mr Adams advised that while the Town and Country Planning will do their part in making the necessary information public, land/property owners will have to either make provisions to be present in person or ensure that they have some form of proper representation at meetings whenever they are called.

“But when is election time come all of them does run home to vote so they should do the same to deal with this, but we all know that people are not going to leave where they are to come home just for a community meeting,” said one resident.

Residents were also concerned about the fact that they were allegedly being deprived from freely developing their lands by government because of the pending CBCDP. “We done can’t get access to our lands up there, they got a big buffer area up there what they said they can’t develop, then why don’t the government buy the area and done because we who own the land up there the land is no good to us….. I got property up there and for me to get there I need a helicopter.”

Several vocal community members expressed the view that they were being deprived of their rights to develop their properties, that government should facilitate ways for persons to develop their inherited properties, address issues surrounding erosions, matters of sewerage, many matters surrounding the cutting and development of proposed access road and developmental works to the lower flat of the area.

According to the Town and Country Planning Department, the preparation of the Carrot Bay Development Plan is in keeping with the Physical Planning Act to bring about orderly and coordinated physical development of Carrot Bay and its environs; to conserve community resources; to guide the pattern, intensity and timing of the use of land; and to promote the health, safety, economic well-being and general welfare of the people in the community.