No matter when the Legislature decides on the Beal Aerospace/V.I. government land exchange, serious fallout will follow.
According to Gov. Charles Turnbull, Andrew Beal, owner of Beal Aerospace Technologies, said that if the Senate doesn’t approve a proposal to exchange 14.5 acres of government owned land at Great Pond Bay for two parcels the company owns, there will be no rocket assembly plant built on St. Croix.
Because of Beal’s position, Turnbull said at a press conference on Friday he was supporting the company’s proposal.
"Once I decide on something that’s it, I don’t pull back," Turnbull said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the St. Croix Environmental Association, the V.I. League of Women Voters and residents who live near the proposed site have vowed to take the matter to court if the land swap is ratified. The groups contend the 14.5 acres was deeded to the people of the territory and cannot be traded away.
Yvonne Petersen, executive director of SEA, said that the senators know that whatever their decision, there will be opposition.
"We are hoping the Legislature won’t approve the land exchange," she said. "We’re hoping it will die there."
Petersen said, though, that if the land swap opponents’ "worst case scenario" plays out, "unfortunately we will be forced to take legal action."
The Beal proposal is stalled in the Legislature pending action on the land exchange that includes the company acquiring the public land at Great Pond Bay in exchange for two parcels it owns in Grange Hill and Estate Whim. The Senate is also waiting on Beal’s rezoning application and Industrial Development Commission contract.
Beal holds the option to approximately 280 acres of additional land near Great Pond Bay on St. Croix’s rural southeast shore. The company needs the 14.5 Camp Arawak parcel for a portion of its parking lot and buffer zone surrounding its proposed facility, which would be the largest single structure in the Eastern Caribbean.
The Camp Arawak land, however, was deeded to the V.I. government in 1974 for the sole purpose of being developed as public park land for the people of the Virgin Islands. The entire 280-plus acres would also have to be rezoned for industrial use in order for Beal to develop the site.
Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen has stated her displeasure with Turnbull’s support of the development. In a letter to the governor earlier this month she said that she would file suit against the government if the exchange is ratified.
"Any action by the Legislature to approve the land swap would be followed the next day by a court action filed by this senator and attorney Ned Jacobs on behalf of the people of the Virgin Islands," Hansen told Turnbull in an Aug. 13 letter.
Jacobs lives next door to the Camp Arawak property.
Opponents of the development at Great Pond want Beal and the V.I. Port Authority to work out a deal so the company can purchase land VIPA owns near the already industrialized area of the island.
But according to Turnbull, when he met with Beal in Texas earlier this month he was told the only viable site is at Great Pond. Turnbull said he asked Beal if the company was ready to fight a protracted legal battle over the issue of the deeded land and was told yes.
"There’s a gray area there the legal minds will deal with," Turnbull said. "It’s a battle between Beal and the environmentalists."
