It appears the demolition of St. Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Centre did not take place on Thursday as scheduled. The announced intention had led to many protests on social media, while even the Dutch Parliament, of which a delegation visited the facility at St. Peters in 2016, got involved.
Very little was heard from the island’s own elected representatives on the issue, even though public sentiment appears against the enforcement measure. Most would probably favour a solution allowing Denicio Wyatte to continue his work providing and promoting homegrown fruit and vegetables for the community.
To be sure, he broke the law by rebuilding his hurricane-damaged wooden structures in concrete without a permit. In that sense the court could do little else than dismiss his claim.
But government is there to run the country on behalf of its people. If deemed in the general interest, exemptions should always be possible under extraordinary circumstances.
Of course, one needs to be very careful about setting dangerous precedents with all possible future consequences. Nevertheless, when well-motivated, deviating from the norm by fixing a basically unlawful situation after the fact is not uncommon.
Entire neighbourhoods constructed illegally on public land such as Souax in Curaçao were regulated years later, simply because destroying all those homes just didn’t make any sense. To many, the same thing goes for obstructing one of the Dutch side’s few serious farmers helping to secure a healthy organic local food source for an island that depends almost completely on imports, making it very vulnerable in case of calamities such as hurricanes.
There will be little choice but to knock the buildings down if they are technically unsound and can’t be adjusted to make them compliant. However, should the latter still be an option that clearly seems the preferred route at this point.
