Would-be developers told land-use officials Monday that they’d scrapped designs for a mixed-use commercial center on 15.9 acres of virgin St. Croix land. The new plan was a 24-unit residential development to help alleviate the territory’s housing shortage. People from surrounding neighborhoods called it a ruse.

Why, community commenters at the Comprehensive and Coastal Zone Planning meeting asked, would developers request a zoning change from R-1, low-density residential, to B-2, secondary business, if the goal was a series of town houses and condominiums? Other zoning designations — R-2, R-3 or R-4 — would seem more appropriate, the Maison de Poincy Condo Association and others suggested.

Former Sen. Alicia Barnes, who represented property owner Atta Misbeh at the meeting, implied private financing of the project would be easier if the property was zoned B-2.

“The B-2 designation allows for a greater degree of leveraging resources,” Barnes said. “There is no intention to develop this site for commercial property.”

Neighbors of the Beeston Hill property were unconvinced. Once the land was rezoned, they said, Misbeh could build something similar to the mixed-use commercial center he sought — and nearly achieved permission for — in 2022. Legislators approved a zoning change that year after a contentious Senate hearing devolved into name-calling, but Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. vetoed the legislation in early 2023.

One neighbor to the property said Monday that developers were “Wrapping the same pig in a new blanket.”

Barnes addressed neighbors’ concerns about the rezoning bid, saying people opposed to the project were not community-minded, were entrenched in luxurious entitlement, and sought to stifle a younger generation of Crucians’ potential.

“There seems to be significant concern for your quality of life without consideration that others may want to afford themselves a similar quality of life themselves. And that is why we are here. Many people exist in a tone deaf environment where they have achieved a certain level of influence and affluence and that’s it. They’re satisfied. ‘We’ve got ours, too bad for whomever is trying to get there’s.’ We are here to ensure that the Virgin Islands, that St. Croix, is available for upward mobility for everyone who is willing to work and achieve that upward mobility and not for a select few,” Barnes said. “For those who want to exists in their siloed existence, not having a community mindset, that is antithesis to who we are as a Virgin Islands people.”

The Virgin Islands couldn’t expect young professional Virgin Islands living on the mainland to come home if there wasn’t proper housing, she said.

“We need to provide appropriate, affordable housing,” Barnes said. “We would love to work with the adjacent property owners and have a collaborative approach to this development, however, however, it is important that, as a community, we do not exist in a siloed manner. It is important for those of us who have been able to achieve a certain degree of affluence and influence in this community, that we use it constructively. It behooves us to consider the generations to come. We have comfortable lives. we have to leave a legacy and create and environment of growth for this territory. And that begins with affordable housing, transportation, health care and education. We cannot say that we want to attract young professionals to return to the Virgin Islands and they have no place to live. We are addressing this issue.”

Barnes also suggested people in the Beeston Hill area were only interested in their own well-being and didn’t show the same level of concern about other developments in adjacent residential areas, especially less-affluent neighborhoods.

“I really appreciate the level of interest, concern in this particular rezoning application and I think it has a lot to do with the residential community that perceives that it’s going to be impacted by this particular activity in an adverse way — or not, because I do know perception becomes a reality. It would have been great to experience and solicit this type of community concern when we had the issue at Barron Spot with that monstrosity that’s being constructed in an area that dwarfs a residential community. But I guess the socioeconomic composition of that community does not warrant this type of outcry,” she said. “I truly hope to see this level of participation in other developments, maybe not impacting you.”

Barnes lauded Misbeh as being born and raised on St. Croix, and remaining on island to spur potential economic growth. She expressed an opposite opinion of people living in the Beeston Hill neighborhood for generations.

“We are requesting for our young people to return home. But return home to live where? Not all of us are the beneficiaries of generational wealth. Not all of us can reside on family property. Not all of us can have the wherewithal to purchase a home outright,” she said. “They want to deny other persons the opportunity to do that.”

The proposed development would use up to four acres on the western side of the property for homes between $150,000 and $400,000 — ranging from a 750-square-foot efficiency apartment to a 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom apartment, Barnes said. Up to 70 percent would be rentals, with 30 percent sold on the open market.

The six, two-story buildings would be connected to the public sewer and potable water system. Each unit will have two designated parking spaces.

Barnes said concerns about potential stormwater, traffic flow, and flora-and-fauna impacts of the project would be addressed in later earth-change permits.

Territorial Planner Leia LaPlace-Matthew said the Department of Planning and Natural Resources would take public comment on the proposed development until Sept. 25 at leia.laplace@dpnr.vi.gov.