The Department of Planning and Natural Resources held a town hall meeting at the University of the Virgin Islands Albert Sheen campus on St. Croix Tuesday night to better define the vision of a future St. Croix.
About 100 members of the community attended the “Comprehensive Land & Water Use Plan” meeting to discuss the USVI Comp Plan, a guided document that will serve as a roadmap for the way land development and coastal water uses are reviewed and permitted in the Virgin Islands.
A set of town hall meetings are being held across the territory in hopes of feedback and community participation.
Department of Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Jean-Pierre L. Oriol said that over the last 40 years, Title 29 of the V.I. Code established the planning office in 1970. It called for a long-range comprehensive plan. In 1995 and again in 2004, a comprehensive plan was crafted, but the plan was not adopted.
“Although the adoption of the comprehensive plan has not yet taken place, we have seen agencies create plans to strategically guide the way forward,” said Oriol.
He continued, “We at DPNR felt that it was a good time to pursue once again a comprehensive plan for the territory.”
DPNR started the process by asking what is important and what areas needed to be protected and preserved for cultural, social, economic or other values. They then asked participants to provide their thoughts on community values. “We looked at how we would capture that in policy,” said Oriol.
So far, DPNR has done small group interviews, working groups, surveys, town halls and outreach through social media.
“The purpose of tonight is not to talk about specific proposed development or improvement projects but rather explore hypothetical future sites in sketches and define the vision of St. Croix in the future,” he said.
The room then broke into more than 12 groups of eight participants each in a hands-on exercise to attain feedback from the sketches that were created based on past town halls. The sketches were of Sunny Isles Shopping Center and of the Five Corners intersection. After almost an hour, the groups had one person per group present their thoughts about the sketches and their input on more revisions.
Oriol said that the method was used on St. Thomas 13 years ago. The results assisted in helping to remodel the waterfront on St. Thomas and other big ideas.
Some of the suggestions from the public included the addition of bike trails, walking trails, roundabouts, parking suggestions, flooding, and possibly moving the Water and Power Authority’s plant elsewhere.
Town hall discussions will be held on the following days on St. Thomas and St. John:
St. Thomas – Thursday, Nov. 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Columban Hall at the Holy Family Church.
St. John – Monday, Nov. 13, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Sprung Structure in Coral Bay next to the fire station.
To learn more, visit the DPNR Facebook page.
To continue to be a part of the process, Oriol encourages the public to follow www.planusvi.com and sign up to receive emails.
