Pond Bay St John Development

Haven't heard a peep about it so don't know anything to comment upon.

It was already mostly developed and presumably the new owners are going to finish it up under the already granted permits.
http://newsofstjohn.com/2015/04/01/pond-bay-going-up-for-auction/

Am hoping Julie or Pia will post local, unpublished comments.

I'll keep it to my own opinion instead of what I've heard/know that hasn't been officially published. I for one am glad that the project has been bought. I hope they are successful in completing it. I can say all I want that I wish there wasn't big projects like this on St. John, but the ones that have already been started, I like to see completed. I think that St. Johnians and visitors have learned that when their is wind of a big project they know to fight it in it's infancy (like the marinas). I think fighting it after it's already 1/2 way done is silly because they just aren't going to tear it down and return the area to what it was before. Hopefully Mr. Lowe has the experience and backing needed to get this project done. A lot of people had jobs because of this project, hopefully that will happen again. And upon it's completion, it will also create more permeant jobs. So I'm not going to complain about that. I can't say much about the vision, since I don't even know what that is yet. I can hope that it is possibly a scaled back version of the original plan that is sustainable.

Thanks, Julie. I guess we'll find out more details about his vision next week. I didn't like his attitude based on what I read. Does he really think he can get customs laws changed so the VI can attract more retail? The last thing we need is more retail stores, especially on St John.

Hopefully, their waste water and septic treatment systems will actually meet EPA standards as they are right on the water. Most developers (SADLY) leave the wastewater system planning and installation to the end, which means to do it properly, the costs skyrocket. To have environmentally sustainable / sound and cost-effective wastewater systems, you have to plan that at the front end, along with the water and power, instead of plunking buildings and infrastructure conflicts down on the very ground you need to do wastewater properly.

That's the way it works in the "real" world anyway. Not so much on our islands.

Most developers (SADLY) leave the wastewater system planning and installation to the end, which means to do it properly, the costs skyrocket.

I would expect the complete waste-water treatment design/plan would be part of the initial permit and be engineer approved and any variations to that would have to be approved by the VI planning dept. Maybe I'm expecting too much.

You are.

I don't think St. John has the population to support any large retailers. St. Thomas might be different. If he thinks he can help get the custom laws revised, more power to him. They, as well as other things, should be revised. I think he's pretty aware of island time. He's spent enough time here to have an idea of how things move. A big project like Pond Bay will teach him even more. Hope he does better than the first developers. That didn't turn out well, several little guys on St. John went out of business as a result of the project going belly up. Not entirely their fault, most of these people who went out of business overextended themselves in a way they shouldn't have.