Monday’s story about the approval by Parliament to reintroduce Article 28a into the National Ordinance on Spatial Development Planning at the request of Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran was interesting. The article had been adopted on October 10, 2010, when St. Maarten became a country within the Dutch Kingdom, as a temporary measure to supervise basically uncontrolled development pending zoning plans.
However, the latter were never completed, and the article had expired in January 2012. This led to irresponsible land use with all consequences for nature.
Opposition member Claudius Buncamper, a high-ranking VROMI official for many years, said it is currently “like a Wild West out there.” He mentioned as example people receiving water rights and filling in to create real estate instead.
But while the proposal got unanimous support, many were worried about an additional layer of bureaucracy the related “civil works permit” will add and the ability of the Inspections Department to execute the evaluation process for such. Their concern seems justified, as the minister reported a backlog of around 250 building permits, although steps are being taken to address this capacity issue. Moreover, an amendment was passed authorising the minister to exempt some projects.
On the other hand, the potential for abuse of power, arbitrary decisions and even favouritism was also touched on several times. The minister’s answer was that “once we have proper policy in place, it will leave little room for personal opinions.”
Nevertheless, it would be nice to have listed somewhere with public access exactly what the criteria for excavation, filling in or levelling soil, constructing roads and pavements, cutting down trees and other vegetation, demolishing buildings, damming water, etc. are. After all – as the saying suggests – the devil is often in the details.
