Do St. John Residents Have Any Say About What Goes on Where They Live?

St. John Tradewinds,

Where is St. John representation in our Legislature? Do the elected officials of our government, with their newly elevated salaries, not give any heed to the wishes of the people of this small, once pristine and peaceful island?

Enighed Condominiums LLC, the developers of Sirenusa, have repeatedly shown disrespect to the people who live in the whole area of upper Enighed, by blocking the road with giant trucks, parking along both sides of the public road and allowing run-off and boulder slides onto adjacent properties. They have changed the configuration of their development numerous times without regard to permitting and have re-sculpted the landscape, as well.

They have shown no respect for the people of St. John or government permitting agencies.

This issue is much larger than “seven (or is it 10?) additional units and someone’s view.” The issue is whether the residents of St. John have any say as to what goes on where they live.

The community has come together repeatedly with their concerns about infrastructure issues, such as WAPA’s potential inability to provide sufficient water and reliable electricity and the very dangerous issue of inadequate access and egress for this development. Contrary to comments made in the Legislature on the evening of April 17, our concerns have not been addressed.

Furthermore, by giving a zoning change to the  developer under these circumstances, not only have the wishes of the community been disregarded, but a green light is given to a company, which has broken the rules, lied and reluctantly made some shoddy repairs and built sagging chain link fences for aggrieved adjacent property owners.

This action would also set a precedent for future developers, regardless of their merits.

The DPNR report on Sirenusa’s requested zoning change/variance, dated December 20, 2006, came out clearly and emphatically against granting that change. The report was well written and should have been followed. As a community, if we do not follow the recommendations of the professional organization (DPNR), charged with regulating zoning, why do we even have zoning laws?

We must have a moratorium on permits for further large developments on St. John, until we have an island wide, professional plan in effect, which will address our very real infrastructure limitations.

I call on Governor deJongh to veto this bill, and our Legislators to let the veto stand!

Sincerely,
A close neighbor to Sirenusa,
and member of the St. John Coalition