Guana Cay residents are apparently still harbouring mistrust about the Discovery Land Company that is pursuing a luxury development on the cay, much to their indignation.
And there are no signs about them possibly pulling back on the legal challenge they are mounting to the Heads of Agreement, despite the revisions that the developers have made to the original design plans.
“Our official position is we donﾴt trust this developer,” said Troy Albury, a member of the Save Guana Cay Reef lobby and the operator of a dive shop in the tiny island, “no matter what they say or do, who is going to monitor what they do in the end?”
Itﾴs a question that residents of the island have posed before as they continue to query the environmental monitoring mechanism to which the developers must adhere.
The group of residents, through their attorney, are pursuing a judicial review in relation to the project that its developers have said will amount to half a million dollars once completed.
In the face of vehement objections to some of the original plans, the Discovery Land Company has scaled back the 240-slip marina to 180 slips, extended the public beach park and incorporated a closed drainage system for the golf course to prevent the run-off from seeping into the water and destroying the nearby reef.
“There is no way those developers could go in there and produce an environmentally friendly result, even if they do the things they say they are going to do,” said Mr. Albury. “So as far as we are concerned, the only compromise we will have at any point is going to be no golf course and a significantly smaller marina, not built into the land but built out of the break water and other than that we donﾴt want this developer at all.”
In response to the strenuous objections from sceptics, who had even gone as far a staging a demonstration in downtown Nassau recently, Prime Minister Christie has said he is not interested in imposing upon them a development over which they had to fight.
Within recent days, one of the principals of the development company, has conceded that they are not going to overcome all objections but they were committed to an environmentally friendly project.
They have taken sought to take that message of the residents, to local government officials and the out island promotion board.
As for the scaled back marina, others have said that it still does not make a significant difference since 29 acres of mangroves will still be dredged to create it.
“Some of the information that they are putting forth is misleading and some of it is outright impossible for example their key thing is this is going to be an environmentally friendly golf course and the grass that they are going to put is so environmentally friendly. It may be more environmental friendly than other grasses but it still requires, according to research, 242 pounds of fertilizer per acre every yearﾅso you can still see all that fertilizer has to go on the golf course in order to make it green, in order to make it grow,” Mr. Albury said.
Company representatives have explained that the grass they intend to use thrives in brackish water.
Fred Smith, the attorney retained by Guana Cay residents, is awaiting a court date for the judicial review.
Another Guana Cay resident, Rebecca Lightbourne, urged Prime Minister Perry Christie in a letter to come to the island, speak with residents in person and take real and concrete steps to address unanswered questions.
“Nobody in Guana Cay is against development as long as it is of a reasonable scale in keeping with the rest of the community, is in line with the local building styles, has no negative environmental consequences and fosters a friendly relationship with the locals,” she wrote.
The Heads of Agreement for the Bakerﾴs Bay project provides for some 66 acres of wetlands, flats and creeks to be protected under a foundation for research and educational purposes. The agreement was hailed as a model.
Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
