More than a decade after it was first proposed by Virgin Islands businessman Robert Wong, the Drake’s Landing resort and marina development in Havers is belly-up, and the seaside land reclaimed for the project is being used to store derelict vehicles.
Area residents, many of whom previously opposed the resort, are now expressing outrage over the growing scrap heap they say is marring their view and threatening their property values.
“No environmental impact assessment has been done,” Havers resident Ingrid Moses-Scatliffe said during a community meeting last Thursday, adding, “We now have another industrialised area in the prime property of District Three, at the bottom. It is unbelievable.”
Such concerns caused Deputy Premier Julian Fraser, who represents the neighbourhood in the House of Assembly, to call the meeting alongside Health and Social Development Minister Vincent Wheatley.
Inside the Valerie O. Thomas Community Centre last Thursday evening, Messrs. Fraser and Wheatley sat before about two dozen residents who included Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism Luce Hodge-Smith and opposition members Lorna Smith and Stacy Mather.
Mr. Wheatley explained that the Department of Waste Management, which his ministry oversees, previously stored the crushed cars in Pockwood Pond on two acres leased from VI businessman Ashley Ritter.
But after Mr. Ritter informed government of his plan to terminate the contract at the end of last year, the DWM issued two tenders: one to remove the scrap and another to store it elsewhere, Mr. Wheatley said.
He also claimed that he learned very recently that the cars would be moved to the Havers land, which in 2021 was purchased by JabberXS Limited, a company owned by Tortola Auto Group Managing Director Shan Mohamed.
“I called one of the guys who were involved with moving the cars, and I said to him, ‘Is there going to be a barrier around the area? Because it’s going to create a problem,’” Mr. Wheatley told the Beacon on Tuesday. “And sure enough, they moved the cars and no barrier went up, and there was a problem.”
Though the minister told residents last Thursday that he’s working “feverishly” to have the vehicles moved once again, he acknowledged that the government is struggling to find a suitable site.
“I can assure you as quickly as I can get this matter resolved, it will be resolved in a way that you will be pleased,” Mr. Wheatley said during the meeting. “I mean, I wouldn’t want it in my backyard either. But the fact remains: We do produce a lot of derelicts in this country, and they have to be placed somewhere.”
Asked when the vehicles would be removed, Mr. Wheatley said he had his “fingers crossed” that the Havers site would be cleared by Feb. 15.
Hours before last Thursday’s meeting, the government also released a tender seeking companies to process and export as many as 600 derelict vehicles out of the territory.
Taken by surprise
Meeting attendees said they were taken by surprise by the arrival of the vehicles over the recent holidays.
Ms. Moses-Scatliffe said she first heard heavy machinery outside at 7 a.m. on Boxing Day.
“I saw all the excavators doing something, but I didn’t quite know what was happening,” she said.
Two days later, she added, derelict cars began appearing in the night.
“Since then, [cars have] been coming,” Ms. Moses-Scatliffe said. “It’s like in the cloak of night. Only the people who live [there] can see.”
Besides the odd working hours, residents suggested that the scrap heaps may violate conditions set by government when the land was reclaimed.
Claiming he was unaware of the exact location of the vehicles, Mr. Fraser (R-D3) spoke up once he heard an audience member describe the site.
“If they’re on the reclaimed site, it means that there’s a problem, because they can’t use the reclaimed site for that purpose,” said the deputy premier, who agreed that the vehicles should be moved as soon as possible.
During the meeting, Mr. Wheatley said the company responsible for storing the cars at the site is Mr. Mohamed’s JabberXS Limited.
Department of Waste Management Director Marcus Solomon told the Beacon this week that Mr. Mohamed responded to a November tender with a bid to store the vehicles on two acres for $8,217 monthly for a one-year period.
This price was comparable to Mr. Ritter’s previous contract to store them on two acres for $4,000 per acre per month, according to Mr. Solomon.
The director added that the cost to transport the vehicles from Mr. Ritter’s property, a separate project tendered last July, came to $53,000.
“We do apologise for the inconvenience caused to all communities that resides close to any waste management facility/operations,” Mr. Solomon wrote in a Tuesday email. “We applaud Havers residents and other members of the BVI community for their willingness to participate in finding solutions to a national waste management issue.”
During the meeting last Thursday, Mr. Wheatley also noted the dearth of laws governing land use in the territory.
“I do not think we actually have zoning laws,” he said. “It’s been a vexing issue.”
Meeting attendees, however, insisted that reclaimed land should be used for its original purpose.
Resident William Ketcham added that public projects such as derelict vehicle removal should require permitting in the territory.
“I hope you all feel that this is wrong,” Mr. Ketcham said during the meeting. “There should have been many permits that we needed to do that.”
Ms. Smith (R-at large), who lost her position as deputy premier to Mr. Fraser last October after falling out with the premier, also spoke out.
“First of all, I am offended, I believe everybody else in this room is, that we had to dig to find out who the real person is, who the beneficial owner is,” Ms. Smith said. “It is not right.”
Additionally, Ms. Smith said, residents deserve to know where the vehicles will be moved next.
“I want to know, to the extent that you can tell us, where is the other place that you’re moving them to, if you plan to move them at all?” she asked. “I also want to know when this government is going to grow some balls and exercise what they know as eminent domain.”
Mr. Wheatley told Ms. Smith that he would keep the idea of eminent domain in mind, but he maintained that government was still searching for a suitable site where the vehicles can be moved.
After the meeting, Mr. Wheatley told the Beacon the process for handling derelict vehicles is out as outlined in the 2019 waste management strategy drafted for the territory by the Swiss firm Agency RED, which he acknowledged is not fully enforced.
Asked why he wasn’t aware of the new location earlier, the minister said such contracts don’t fall under his remit.
“A contract was issued to the Deputy Governor’s Office,” Mr. Wheatley said. “I wish I had more knowledge. That’s not something I deal with directly.”
The DGO referred the Beacon’s questions about the derelict vehicles back to Mr. Wheatley’s ministry, but he maintained his position.
“When it comes to leases, they handle it: the Deputy Governor’s Office,” the minister said Tuesday. “So we would have no sign of that [contract].”
Marina resort fail
The original plan for the site was outlined in a 2014 development agreement between the government and JSSR Holdings Limited, a company headed by Mr. Wong.
Under the agreement, a $70 million project would be built over five years and would include a 55-slip marina, a 60-room five-star hotel, an oceanfront complex with 60 condos, restaurants and other amenities.
Land reclamation in the Havers area began in April 2019, but the Town and Country Planning Department briefly halted the work after what Chief Planner Greg Adams called a “misunderstanding.”
The following month, land reclamation was back under way, with trucks dumping loads of dirt and rocks into the water.
Later that year, though, Mr. Wong told the Beacon that he was in “no rush” and that he was “taking [his] time to do things properly.”
“I need an investor that understands what I’m doing, not just people who are in it for the money: I don’t entertain those guys,” he said in June 2019. “Whoever wants to take their time and help, I’ll accept it.”
After the land was reclaimed, however, the resort was never constructed. And last year, the government and JSSR terminated the 2014 development agreement through another agreement signed by Mr. Wong and Premier Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley on Nov. 13.
Mr. Adams, the chief planner, told the Beacon yesterday that his department was not involved in the decision to store the vehicles on the Havers property.
“I have no further comment regarding the situation,” he wrote in an email.
Mr. Adams did, however, provide information about the rules governing reclaimed land.
“Generally speaking, in considering applications for reclamation, the Planning Authority would require some level of environmental impact assessment to be done,” he stated. “If the reclamation is approved, the conditions that are attached to the approval will be a function of efforts to mitigate impacts of the reclamation activity on the environment. Depending on the proposed activity, the authority may impose additional conditions of approval. Any stipulations regarding this reclaimed area would have been connected to the proposed development that was considered by the Planning Authority at the time that the application was reviewed.”
No comment
Asked for comment on the property’s current situation, Mr. Wong told the Beacon on Tuesday that he had “nothing to say.”
Messrs. Mohamed and Ritter did not respond to messages before Beacon press time yesterday afternoon.
Attempts to obtain the contracts for the derelict vehicle removal and storage were not successful.
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