The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A late June Town Meeting over the Abaco Club’s proposed marina project was yesterday described as too little, too late by its opponents, who said: “The horse has already bolted.”

Fred Smith QC told Tribune Business that the promise of a “vacuous, overarching” Town Meeting on June 27 to discuss the 44-slip docking facility would not dissuade his clients from pursuing their Judicial Review challenge to the project.

The Callenders & Co attorney and partner was responding on behalf of Responsible Development for Abaco (RDA), his client, after a ‘public notice’ advertising the Town Meeting was published in yesterday’s Tribune newspaper.

The timing of the notice’s publication indicates it is a response to RDA’s Judicial Review challenge, which was given permission to proceed by the Supreme Court on May 24.

The Town Meeting is to be held at the Walter Sands Community Centre in Cherokee Sound at 6.30pm on Monday, June 27, for the purpose of “discussing the proposed plans” by the Abaco Club for its facility, which is to be located at Little Harbour.

The notice promised that “further information on the proposed development” could be obtained from the Bahamas Environment, Science and Technology (BEST) Commission’s website.

However, this “information” could not be located on the BEST website by Tribune Business prior to press time last night.

Mr Smith, though, told Tribune Business that the planned Town Meeting would still “not satisfy the legal requirements” that all government agencies have to consult with those likely to be impacted by major development projects.

“As the attorney for RDA, I am very pleased to see that the Government and/or developer, we don’t know who, is proposing some kind of Town Meeting,” he said.

“The problem is that the horse has already bolted from the stable. Our action has already been issued, and what is done is done.

“The fact is that the Government has already made a decision, and we are challenging this decision, so this is not going to be a repeat of the Wilson City power plant mix up.”

RDA initiated its Judicial Review on the grounds that both developer (the Abaco Club) and the Government have failed to engage in “adequate consultation” with residents and affected parties in Little Harbour.

Apart from the 44-slip private dock, the Abaco Club’s planned supporting facilities include a supplies shop, private restaurant and 6,000 square foot covered parking lot.

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

Having emphasised that the promised Town Meeting will not induce his clients to ‘back down’, Mr Smith said of the issues raised: “This is very simple.

“The project needs certain approvals by different regulatory agencies, and each of those agencies need to publish notices of any application for permits and, at each stage for each regulatory process, my clients have a right to be consulted,” he added.

“Some vacuous, overarching promise of a Town Meeting in two to three weeks’ time is not what the law requires.”

There are nine government respondents to the Judicial Review, including Prime Minister Perry Christie; Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis; Glenys Hanna Martin, minister of transport and aviation; Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment; the Town Planning Committee; South Abaco District Council; Richard Hardy, acting director of Lands and Surveys; and Marques Williams, Abaco’s port administrator.

Mr Smith yesterday called on each of them to “please go back to the law and act in accordance with the statutory requirements”.

“Some generalised meeting by whom we do not know, providing what - if any - information - does not satisfy the legal requirements,” he added.

“The website the public has been referred to appears completely devoid of any information.

“So, once again, obviously someone appreciates that a consultative process is legally required, but they have failed abysmally in engaging in a consultative process that is meaningful and lawfully required.”

Mr Smith pledged that he would attend the June 27 meeting.

Tribune Business recently reported how the Abaco Club’s principal had accused some Little Harbour residents of seeking to “incite confrontation” against him over the controversial marina.

David Southworth cited this as the principal reason why he broke off all contacts with the Little Harbour Property Owners Association (ALHPO) just six weeks after meeting them to initiate a public consultation process over the facility in 2015.

His decision to sever all ties drew a predictably negative response from Little Harbour residents, who are accusing the Abaco Club of seeking “to monopolise 40-50 per cent of the navigable water” in their harbour with the proposed marina.

Mr Southworth and Southworth Development partnered with a group of existing Abaco Club homeowners to acquire the Winding Bay-based property in late 2014.