Marlin: Indigo Bay Estate
awaiting updated permit
PHILIPSBURG--Indigo Bay Estate land preparation, excavation and groundbreaking by Commissioner Roy Marlin were carried out based on an old planning permit issued to Cay Bay Development L.L.C. in 1999.
Commissioner Roy Marlin told the press Wednesday that the company was now awaiting the approved version of this permit, which had been signed by the Executive Council on May 29, but had never been ratified by Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards.
“It’s just that final little step that has to be taken,” Marlin said about the issuance of the permit. The Lt. Governor should sign the permit next week.
Indigo Bay Estates was very much in the news last week last week when Head of Government’s Environmental Planning and Policy Department Delano Richardson was suspended for reportedly giving the developers a go-ahead letter that enabled the developer to carry out work on the 148-acre property without the revised planning permit.
Marlin, like Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams before him, declined to give details of about Richardson’s suspension, saying they did not discuss matters pertaining to government personnel in public.
Excavation works on the site reportedly have degraded the stability of A.J.C. Brouwer Road, which runs on the hillside above the property. This, as well as an excavator damaging a main electricity feeder cable and blacking out the entire Dutch side two weeks ago, had led to temporary stoppage of work on the site.
The Department of Public Works lifted the work stoppage on August 31, but limited work to the valley. No new cuts on the hillside are allowed until the permits have been officially granted.
Also, the developers have to cover all cost related to the re-stabilisation of the road, and for the construction of Link I Phase III, which will be built on land donated to the government by the developer. These conditions are to be added to the revised planning permit.
Asked about the reported destabilisation of the road in an area that was also undermined during Hurricane Lenny in 1999, Marlin said he did not think there was any serious problem, but if there had been any undermining, the area would have to be reinforced.
