A
few short weeks later (on 29 June) the AUF lost the general election and was
replaced by an Anguilla Progressive Movement administration. The APM administration inherited the
MOU. Residents of Sandy Ground are
calling on the new administration to repudiate the MOU. They oppose the MOU on several grounds including
that it will disrupt the village, poison the people, and produce no benefit to
the country.
A
first look at the MOU reveals that it is essentially a real estate development
project. The document says that the Developer
will build a 150-berth marina. Crucially, it will also build a hotel and sell
ocean estate lots, port town villas, seafront residences, sea view town homes,
and commercial space. The real estate units
are to be sold as condominium and time share-type properties.
Some
of the objections advanced by residents of Sandy Ground include engineering,
environmental, feasibility, and amenity issues.
Let us look at some of them.
The
engineering objections to the development of a mega-yacht marina in the Road
Pond are formidable. The pond was
apparently created in prehistoric times by a sand bank forming across the
middle of the bay. Experts can tell us
approximately when this happened. It is
likely to have been many thousands of years ago, perhaps as long ago as a
hundred thousand years. During the
intervening period, and from time to time, glaciers covered large areas of the
earth causing sea levels to lower. Subsequent
melting of the glaciers resulted in
rising sea levels. The result was that the
sand bank was sometimes above and sometimes below the surface of the
surrounding sea. The present village of
Sandy Ground is constructed on this sand bank which is no more than 10 feet
above sea level.
During
the periods when Sandy Ground was above sea level, sea water permeated through
the sandy bank and filled the trapped bay behind. This formed the familiar Road Salt Pond. As the water in the pond evaporated, crystals
of salt precipitated out and sank to the bottom. For thousands of years, this salt lay
unmolested on the bottom of the pond, gradually becoming compressed as more and
more layers formed on top the previous ones.
Presently, the water in the pond is no more than some six inches
deep. Below that is a thin layer of mud
and a much thicker layer of fossilized salt.
The
old-timers among us recall when, some thirty years ago, the US TV entertainment
billionaire Bob Johnson owned a villa at Cove Castles Resort in West End. He first proposed to the then Government a
project for converting the Road Pond into a Marina. He is supposed to have had a geological
survey of the bottom of the pond done to determine the feasibility of dredging
it. This survey is said to have found
that there was a layer of some forty feet of rock salt overlying the deepest
part of the rocky limestone basement.
One of the reasons why he was said to have dropped the idea of a marina
was the advice that it would take a great deal of blasting to remove this rock
salt layer. Sandy Ground village would
have to be vacated, and the people located elsewhere for a period of up to two
or three years, while the blasting was carried out. This proposition was too expensive even for a
billionaire, and the project fell through.
With increased development in Sandy Ground village since that time, temporary
relocation of the villagers is likely to be more expensive now than it was at
that time. No doubt Government has a
copy of this feasibility study, or with a little effort can get access to it.
Even
if the residents of the village do not have to be relocated, questions have
been asked about the quality of the air once the mud on the bottom of the pond
is disturbed. We are all familiar with
the great stink that comes from the pond from time to time. The question is asked if a disturbance of the
mud layer will result in the air flow over the village being poisoned. Only a feasibility study of the mud layer and
its qualities will reveal the true situation.
Residents
doubt that another marina in the Leeward Islands is feasible. Why would any boat owner choose to dock his
mega yacht in an expensive little island like Anguilla when the established
marinas of nearby St Maarten, Tortola, and Antigua are willing and able to
provide all their necessities?
Reading
the MOU, one gets the impression that the main interest of the Developer is not
the marina but the sale of condominiums.
The proposed marina appears no more than the hook to bring in purchasers
of the luxury units. If that bait fails,
the feasibility of the real estate aspect of the project also fails.
What
evidence do we have that this Developer has US$270 million to invest? The question must be asked, whether after the
“great financial success” of Starwood (remember them?) and other failed
projects, any other than an idiot would take this project on? Could this project be another case of a
penniless “developer” obtaining a licence or agreement with a view of going
into the market to find money?
Hurricanes
pass through the Leeward Islands (of which Anguilla is the most northerly)
nearly every year. Any boat (whether
berthed or beached) remaining in an Anguillian harbour during a hurricane will
suffer catastrophic damage. We have seen
what happens in the existing nearby marinas.
For this reason, luxury boat owners sail their vessels to Trinidad or
Aruba for safety during the hurricane season which lasts for some six months. The existing marinas in St Maarten (where
they have an international airport and marine supply and diesel repair
infrastructure in place) remain half-empty for much of the year.
It
is notorious that insurance companies do not insure boats that remain in these
waters between June and November. Which
mega yacht owner will choose to leave his valuable boat in Anguillian waters
uninsured during the hurricane season? Any
new marina built in Anguilla must plan to close for six months in every year
for want of business. The associated
hotel and condominiums will probably be unoccupied during this period.
With
the onslaught of the Covid-19 pandemic, the holiday and cruise industries have
collapsed. The number of people who will
venture overseas by ‘plane or by boat for leisure in the foreseeable future
will be limited. Mega yachts are more
likely to remain safely moored in Florida or in Monaco than sailing across the
seas to under-resourced destinations like Anguilla. It is not likely there will be any market for
the projected marina, hotel, or condominium units until the world-wide economy
has recovered. This must take at least
the next three to five years. Investors
are not all stupid people. The economic feasibility
of such a situation is much to be doubted.
Article
8 of the MOU provides for Environmental Impact Assessments to be carried
out. Government is obliged by the MOU to
approve all construction subject to adequate environmental and engineering
studies. If the Developer fails to
commence work within 3 years of the effective date, Government has the right to
revoke the Agreement. It is likely that
this provision will operate to save the people of Sandy Ground from the planned
economic and other inconveniences that they were facing.
Article
11 provides that in the event of any disagreement between the parties, they will
submit the issue to arbitration.
Government may only terminate the Agreement if the arbitration process
concludes that it has the right to do so because of a material breach by the Developer
that cannot be amicably resolved. It is
likely that the failure to carry out the planned development in the coming
three years will provide Government with the opportunity to bring this
misconceived project to an early end. It
would be quite wrong for Government to give in to public pressure and terminate
the Agreement without a good reason as contemplated by the Agreement. They will probably lose any resulting lawsuit
and be obliged to pay the Developer damages.
The
new administration has been lumbered with this MOU by the outgoing one. There is probably little or nothing they can
do at this time to get out of their obligation to let the preparation and
planning move forward. What the Government’s
expert advisers must look out for is the opportunity in due course to use the
escape clauses in the Agreement.
