Land and water use officials approved a 14-mile stretch of fiber-optic line into Magens Bay Wednesday night, a tiny offshoot in the 2,730-mile telecommunications cable that is planned to link Vero Beach, Florida, to Butler Bay, St. Croix.
The Department of Planning and Natural Resources’ Coastal Zone Management Division approved the connection after assurances that the line would not damage undersea life or its habitat. The cable will enter a shoreline manhole and connect to an AT&T of the Virgin Islands distribution building through an existing conduit.
The marathon CZM meeting that lasted late into the night also saw approval of a second Lime Out floating restaurant — this one in St. Thomas’ Lindbergh Bay.
Like its Coral Bay predecessor, Lime Out II will offer to-go food and drinks for boaters moored in the area. Owners Richard Baranowski and Dane Tarr assured CZM officials the 53-foot long, 20-foot wide vessel would not have any means of propulsion and would not cook any food on-site using gasoline or any hydrocarbons. All meals would be prepared elsewhere and be served in biodegradable containers.
Affixed to the ocean floor with four helix-type anchors to minimize disturbance to the seabed, the floating restaurant would offer 10 moorings for patrons’ vessels under 65 feet in length. The location would be between roughly 578 feet and nearly 1,400 feet from shore. Seating would be at the bar or on several floating chairs tied to the barge.
“The spot that we’ve chosen is far enough away from the beach but also in a protected area so people can sit at the barside and sit on the floats,” Tarr said. “That spot is a happy medium where it’s out of the way but not too far from the beach.”
The restaurant would have no restroom facility for patrons and a single eight-gallon toilet for staff use.
CZM officials mandated noise from the restaurant would be limited to less than 90 decibels audible at 100 feet.
The meeting ended without a decision on a proposed correctional facility in Sub Base to alleviate overcrowded conditions at other jail facilities. The proposed Swan Annex Correctional Facility hit several snags in the approval process, including limited road access to and from the site and the need to evict a longtime tenant from a building on the site so it could be demolished.
