The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Environmental activists are threatening the Abaco Club with a legal challenge to an expansion project that “will completely alter the character” of one of the island’s most picturesque communities.

Fred Smith QC, in a letter sent to Prime Minister Perry Christie and copied to other government officials, alleged that the Winding Bay-based development and the administration had been less than transparent over the former’s plans for Little Harbour.

The December 21 letters, sent on behalf of Responsible Development for Abaco (RDA), warn that the organisation - which battled BEC’s Wilson City power plant - will launch Judicial Review proceedings in the New Year unless various government agencies supply it with information on the project by January 2, 2016.

Mr Smith’s letters, which have been seen by Tribune Business, reveal that the controversy surrounds the Abaco Club’s plans to build a 44-slip private dock at Little Harbour, together with supporting facilities that include a supplies shop, private restaurant and 6,000 square foot covered parking lot.

He, and RDA, fear that if the project goes ahead it will completely change the environment and character of Little Harbour, a 50-home community that runs entirely off solar power.

And, arguing that the project will create just two jobs in the Little Harbour community, Mr Smith said all the economic benefits would accrue to a foreign developer and the Abaco Club’s homeowners, while the community’s “existing tourist business would be harmed”.

“The development will completely alter the character of Little Harbour, and will adversely impact its human and wildlife populations and the environment,” Mr Smith wrote to the Prime Minister.

“Little Harbour itself is a small community which exists very largely ‘off grid’. It is accessed by an ‘unmade-up’ road. It is not connected to mains water or electricity, and has no public sewerage facilities.

“Residents and homeowners use solar energy, collect rainwater, and are particularly careful of their local environment. No doubt as a result, otherwise endangered wildlife such as green turtles, manatees and piping plovers are abundant in Little Harbour.”

The threat of a legal challenge comes almost a year after Southworth Development, the US-based mixed-use resort developer, joined forces with a group of existing homeowners to acquire the Abaco Club at Winding Bay in a $30 million purchase that closed in December 2014.

But Mr Smith alleged that the Abaco Club’s new owners, and the Government, had been less than transparent about the proposed Little Harbour project.

He said that while the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the development had been submitted to the Government back in December 2014, coinciding with the Abaco Club’s acquisition, this was never disclosed publicly at the time.

David Pitcairn, RDA’s vice-president, and members of the Abaco Little Harbour Property Owners Association, eventually met with David Southworth, the developer’s principal, to discuss the project on January 8, 2015.

Mr Smith’s letter said Mr Southworth discussed his Little Harbour plans in general terms, but no plans were produced.

Despite writing to the Prime Minister, Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission, South Abaco District Council and the Abaco Club itself, Mr Smith said the requests by the Association and RDA for a copy of the EIA “were ignored or refused”.

Mr Southworth “expressly refused” to hold further discussions with the Little Harbour residents from February 2015 onwards, although the South Abaco District Council agreed to stage a Town Meeting that was eventually held on September 22, 2015.

Mr Smith’s letter alleged, though, that unbeknown to Little Harbour residents and RDA, the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) told the developers via a June 4 letter that BEST had “no objection to the development based on the EIA”.

Neither the EIA nor the Abaco Club’s full plans for Little Harbour were produced at the Town Meeting, even though the developer’s representatives revealed that the project’s scope had significantly increased.

“It was acknowledged by the representatives of the Abaco Club that the development would require a generator (not just solar power), a pump-out station and waste treatment facility, and a reverse osmosis desalination plant. They said that no dredging would be required,” Mr Smith wrote to the Prime Minister.

He added that the EIA was eventually made public by the South Abaco District Council on September 28, 2015, with the Government and Abaco Club “still refusing to make it public”.

Mr Smith told the Prime Minister and other officials that the EIA had been rendered flawed by the expanded scope of the project as disclosed at the Town Meeting.

“The development as outlined by representatives of the Abaco Club at the town meeting on September 22, 2015, is substantially different from that originally set out in the EIA,” the QC wrote.

“In particular there is no mention in the EIA of a permanent generator, a reverse Osmosis desalination plant, or waste-treatment facility.

“The EIA is also substantially defective in numerous other ways which residents of Little Harbour could have pointed out if they had at any point been consulted.”

RDA and Little Harbour homeowners now “fear that work may begin imminently” on the project, given that the Abaco Club has placed a large dumpster on the property it owns in that community. The developer had previously indicated it wanted to start construction work in October/November 2015.

Addressing the Prime Minister in his capacity as minister responsible for Crown Land, Mr Smith wrote: “Given the nature of the proposed development, and the potential serious adverse effects on the environment, marine life and the residents and home owners of Little Harbour, it is difficult to see how the conveyance or grant of a lease or license of Crown land to the Abaco Club can be described as being in the interest of the Bahamas.

“This is particularly the case when the economic benefit to the community in Abaco is minimal, while the whole of the direct economic benefit of the project will accrue to Southworth Developments, an entity based in Massachusetts, United States.”

Mr Smith said the homeowners and residents of Little Harbour had not been properly consulted on the project, an issue on which he has succeeded with previous Judicial Review challenges on behalf of environmental activist groups.

Letters seeking further information on the Abaco Club’s applications, and the status of permits/approvals granted by the Government, were sent to Charles Zonicle, acting director of physical planning; Wilshire Bethel, the Town Planning Committee’s chairman; the South Abaco District Council; and Marques Williams, the port administrator for Abaco.

Originally developed by UK investor, Peter de Savary, the Abaco Club opened in December 2004. In 2008, a Marriott affiliate acquired the property and it was then managed by its Ritz-Carlton brand

Southworth and its homeowner allies purchased the 453-acre property from Marriott Vacation Worldwide, a move that ended a $10 million lawsuit that some property owners had initiated against the latter.

Khaalis Rolle, minister of state for investments, told the Abaco Business Outlook conference in September 2014 that Southworth Development had a $123 million investment budget earmarked for the Abaco Club.

He added that the Winding Bay-based property would have a total residential construction value of $225 million at full build-out, stating: “The total projected expenditure related to the project is conservatively estimated at $348 million.”