Dear Editor,
So small but significant story on the front page yesterday: “Sonesta Getting Ready To Build.” Good news for everybody – 1,000 jobs, lots of tax revenue (maybe) and a real flagship property. Good for Sunwing and everybody involved.
Except maybe for the people that live nearby like me. I recognize understand and respect Sunwing’s right to build. I understand Government’s bending over backwards to get it done. There is a lot of money involved going in all sorts of directions. That’s just life and commerce.
What I am having a bit of trouble with is the transparency of the project. There is supposed to be a period of time for “objection” where the public and interested parties can see the drawings and having something to say if they feel they are being hammered in some way.
It seldom does any good and, in a case like this where enough money has changed hands in all conceivable directions, almost a zero percent chance of doing any good, but you never know. It might be that one case in 1,000 where a court or whoever is in charge of such things says, “Yes, it really is a bad idea for them to build a 22-story building 1 meter away from the front wall of your house. Let’s see if we can do something about that.”
But it seems like no one around here will ever get that chance. Apparently the drawings and plans have been deemed a state secret and are not available for inspection unless you get a certain letter from a certain minister whose office is open about 3 minutes a month and if you happen to get in during that three-minute span you discover that he has been on vacation since 1996 and hasn’t signed any such letter since he got there anyway.
The notice of the building permit and objection period is apparently supposed to be published in the “National Gazette.” It took me a while to find out what that even is and I have watched it like a hawk since. No announcement about permits and plans has been published that I ever saw. No surprise to me really. Never ask questions that you don’t want the answers to.
So now I come to Keith and Stuart Johnson (no relation). Keith and I know each other for a long time, having had a lot of conversations over the years that went mostly like, “GEEZE, Keith, is that DJ going to scream all day?” and “GEEZE, Keith, is that music going to go on until dawn every Friday and Saturday?” so I don’t figure he is going to do me any favors and I don’t know Minister Johnson at all.
Having said that, I call on them directly and publicly to be honest, open and forthright with those neighbors whose property values you are about to reduce by 50 per cent. Show us the drawings. Make them publicly available for inspection and comment without having to jump through flaming hoops and traveling to The Hague to do it.
You know you have nothing to lose. Even if we hate what you are going to do you know full well that no one has the budget to fight you. You would have to be doing something incredibly outrageous for any court on this island to even consider giving you a hard time and no one , especially not me, is going to pay Jelmer 400 an hour just to get told that whatever you are doing is “best for the island” so just go away.
Having said that, I really would like to know how high this thing is going to be, what kind of hindrance permits and limits you are getting for the unbearable noise that will be non-stop and how far to the West the new building will extend so I can discover where my deck, instead of looking out into the ocean, will now look into the bedroom window of some tourist on the 8th floor. If you are going to destroy my property value and my life savings and 20 years work along with it, I would like to know and maybe I can sell it off before it’s too late.
I’m calling you out, Keith and Stuart. If you have nothing to hide, if you are proud of what you are doing then show us the drawings. And do it before the time limit expires … or is that why you announced yesterday? Did the time limit for objection expire last week and now it’s safe to talk about it? Or is that just me being cynical?
Steven Johnson
