The Tribune

SOMETIMES there isn’t a right or wrong – just two sides to a story. This is one of those cases.

It starts with a small historic community, a few homes built probably in the 60s. I am guessing the early 60s because it was the heyday of the Beatles, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Eagles. It was the age of rock before hard rock came along and the biggest music stars in the world flocked to The Bahamas to record at Compass Point Studios and to party. They needed places to stay and for privacy and seclusion, a couple of cottages were built close to the studio across the way on Love Beach.

The Beatles filled the houses. Jagger stayed there.

The name Love Beach fits. If you love the beach, you gotta truly love Love Beach, likely the finest stretch of sand and shoreline in New Providence. Which is what is attracting new development to the area. And that’s the rub.

What was this busy island’s best kept secret for decades is now becoming the last bustling hub of construction activity on the north coast. High rises like Columbus Cove tower over two-storey Palms of Love Beach. To the west, there’s another condo. Short and long-term rentals are selling as fast as banana pancakes on a Sunday at IHOP.

There’s a for sale sign on the Nirvana Beach property where for years corporate parties that felt more like family reunions were held and where live music was part of a lively scene speckled with windsurfers in the day and later with kiteboarders.

The world of development has discovered the secret coves, long stretches of soft white sand, the varying elevation that adds interest and safety in case of storm, the natural vegetation that had years to itself to mature. Across the street to the south are single family homes built on generous lots, most remaining in the same hands for generations.

Along comes a well-known and respected Bahamian developer who has submitted plans to build a nine-storey condominium (including a two-storey parking garage), taller than anything that has been built before. His reputation for project development is untarnished. He’s an example of a Bahamian success story and what he builds is high end, each project more luxurious than the one before. Construction provides jobs, the completed project means residents spend thus boosting the local economy. But where the developer has built before has not overshadowed single family homes. Nor has it set a group of neighbours on the warpath as they try to protect the quiet piece of paradise that has been theirs all these years.

Several nearby homeowners are outraged, fearful that Love Beach will lose its charm. How, they ask, can Town Planning allow this when it has been all but impossible to get permission even to build a second cottage on their own near-acre lot, easily large enough for four homes? They point to one family which had been seeking permission to build an additional structure so they could downsize and allow their daughter, her husband and children to move into the original home. After a long battle, they finally got approval to add the cottage, with restrictions for one storey. How, they wonder, if it was so difficult for them to change the zoning or covenants, was it possible for the developer to get the right to build a skyscraper when they could only build a single storey?

Is the developer wrong for wanting to build in an area that has seen property values skyrocket and where other condos already exist, though none so high? Love Beach is suddenly sizzling - a half-acre lot that just came landed on the MLS is listed at $3.75m. A half acre – big enough for one large home or two villas.

Is it time for those who have owned in the tiny community called Garden of Eden to capitulate and recognize their days of seaside solitude are ending? Will they have the power to come together in a voice loud enough to resist and stop a development in its tracks because it will overwhelm, overshadow and forever diminish the tiny enclave of casual perfection they treasure? Whose rights prevail? Residents will have another chance to air their views at a hearing scheduled for May 24. So will the developer.

This is not like the case in Lyford Cay where a long-standing master plan clearly identified an area set aside for condominiums. The controversy over that case does not even seem to make sense. Documents are available for viewing for anyone who wants to take the time to investigate.

But Love Beach poses a serious question about values, emotional ties and bottom lines, a question that comes down to past and present vs future and is there a right or wrong? Or just two sides to a story. You decide.

And on the positive side, Hail to the Sail

And on the positive side, Hail to the Sail

Congratulations to all who contributed to the national discussion that ended with the decision to make sailing the national sport. This column has called for it more than once, but those who first proposed it did so along with a proposal to create a national sailing centre that would have been built on the grassy knoll just east of the Nassau Yacht Club or the northwesternmost corner of Montagu Foreshore. A group of sailors came together from disparate ranges of the sport to request that sailing centre and the official title of the national sport.

The proposal was presented to government some 30 years ago when Zhivargo Laing was Minister of Youth, Sports and Education. Many of those sailors are no longer with us – Captain Rolly Gray, Roy Bowe, Sir Durward Knowles – but others are, Jimmy Lowe, Robert Dunkley, Larry Phillips. I called the former minister, now a popular talk radio show host, to ask if he remembered the exact year. He did not, but guessed it was about 1993.

Credit goes to all, but a special thanks to Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg who recognised that sloop sailing is important and unique – there is nothing like it anywhere in the world – but that the sport of sailing is broader and should be inclusive.

From the starter Opti pram that youngsters learn to sail on to the sophisticated Star Class that Sir Durward skippered to bring home The Bahamas’ first Olympic gold medal, from Sunfish and Lasers to 5.5 Metres like those Gavin McKinney and Craig Symonette race representing The Bahamas in far-off lands, sailing is a sport that does not discriminate based on gender, race or socio-economic status.

The very history of The Bahamas begins with the discovery of the islands by three sailboats and for generations to come sailing was the single means of transport linking islands and people, bringing goods and supplies and serving the most basic needs of a burgeoning nation.

Sailing is woven into the fabric of our history and thanks to the actions of this government will be an honoured part of our future.

There is still time to build that national sailing centre. Exuma has one and thanks to Dallas Knowles and those who contribute, including Friends of Exuma and homeowners like Bob Coughlin, young boys and girls are sailing in D and E classes, preparing to step into their parents’ shoes, slide out on the pry keeping the tradition of fiercely competitive native sloop sailing alive for years to come.