Parking Coming to Enighed; Proposals Due in August

In addition to VIPA’s parking plan, Steve Black announced plans for a marina at Enighed Pond, above.

While a July 19 town hall meeting mostly centered around plans for the Cruz Bay waterfront, the more than 100 residents in the  ballroom at the Westin Resort and Villas also heard about future plans for the Enighed Pond area.

Robert deJongh of The deJongh Group architecture firm was contracted by the V.I. Port Authority to create a plan for the Cruz Bay Creek area and Customs  parking lot. While meeting with a St. John steering committee to lay the groundwork for a plan, deJongh heard residents’ pleas for additional parking in Cruz Bay.

Since VIPA also controls the land at Enighed Pond, which was recently developed to accommodate barge traffic, deJongh devised a plan to create parking in an area near the pond that is currently filled with dredged materials from the pond.

“The parking plan for Enighed Pond was an off-shot of the Cruz Bay waterfront plan,” said deJongh. “We have created a way to bring at least 150 parking spaces to St. John.”

DeJongh’s plans for Enighed Pond call for relocating the berm fill away from the shallow areas along the roadway and making the ground strong enough to accommodate parking. The parking spaces are designed to wind around the exterior portion of the land to take advantage of the shallow berm.

The project was put out for bids last month with an August 6 deadline, which deJongh urged VIPA officials to extend.

“The project is out for bids now and those bids are due August 6, but that date needs to be pushed back because contractors are struggling,” said deJongh. “This is a logistically difficult project. Dealing with the muck and sludge makes this a very challenging project.”

The architect hoped to give contractors an additional one to two weeks to complete the request for proposals.

Residents at the town hall meeting also had a chance to share their ideas on how the Creek and Enighed Pond areas should be transformed. Steve Black offered probably the night’s most ambitious plan for the Enighed Pond area.

Black offered two different plans for the area, actually. The first plan called for creating a sports field, amphitheater, fish market, vendor’s village, carnival and events village, barge parking and a rental car lot on the four acres of dredged materials located in the area.

“With these four to five acres down at Enighed, we have an opportunity to shuffle things around and make it all better,” said Black.

The St. John resident also shared a plan to create a marina at Enighed along the mangrove section of the pond. The “Love City Marina,” is the brainchild of Black, a local family and several other St. John business people — one of whom was reported to be Peter Bay developer Jack Andrews.

“Several St. John business persons, including myself and a local family, have formed a corporation called Love City Marina, with the desire to create a marina at the Enighed Pond,” said Black. “At present, we have some engineers and architects to further design this project.”

The marina would also include shops, a pump out facility, boat rentals and marine repair.