In a contentious two-hour meeting held in shed number four Friday, Magens Bay Authority board members for the first time took public comments and questions on the proposed zip-line canopy tour into the Magens Bay arboretum.
They got an earful.
"I feel like this is going to be extremely harmful to the birds and the wildlife, and they are just going to go away," said longtime St. Thomas environmentalist Helen Gjessing, voicing a fear expressed by many of the 40 or so people who attended Friday.
The project, which was first proposed by local businessman Michael Ball in August, would entail creating an eco-park using the existing Nature Conservancy hiking trail and a zip-line canopy tour that would be constructed and managed by The Original Canopy Tour Company for cruise ship passengers and others.
Beginning at a drop-off point above the bay on Ball’s property off of Magens Bay Road, tourists could hike down or be gravity propelled about 1.5 miles — a descent of 600 vertical feet — on a wire called a zip-line, traversing the natural water gut between multiple platforms until they reach the Alphonso Nelthropp Arboretum below.
Before Friday’s jam-packed meeting, Magens Bay Authority board chairman Aubrey Nelthropp had refused to speak publicly about the project. A Source report in November first brought it to light.
Until he was called back to the agenda by board member Leo Francis on Friday, Nelthropp blasted the initial Source reports which highlighted a possible conflict of interest and described Nelthropp’s refusal to give reporters information on the project or access to the minutes of previous public board meetings. The apparent conflict emerged from deeds and other documents obtained from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office showing that it was Nelthropp’s family that sold Ball the property that is now marked as the proposed launch site of the zip-line.
At first saying he had nothing to hide, Nelthropp then acknowledged that he had intentionally denied even knowing about the project when questioned by a Source reporter multiple times last month.
"I was not going to give any information," Nelthropp said.
Distancing themselves from Nelthropp’s diatribe, board members insisted that they have been studying the proposal closely ever since it was made in August and shared the same concerns of many residents who stood one by one to be heard.
"We are doing our due diligence," Francis said.
"We wanted to know everything about their project and what effect it would have on Magens Bay and this environment," said member Robert Moron. "But we have made no promises to anyone."
Attorney Tom Bolt, who said he represents several of the neighbors who live above Magens Bay, reminded the board members that they are charged with protecting the environmental integrity of that land, while "Mr. Ball’s charge is to pack as many people in as he possibly can, day in and day out…. This is going to greatly affect the neighbors every day," he said.
"You won’t hear the birds," Bolt said in his trademark dramatic style. "What you you’ll hear is the guy from Nebraska as he is whizzing down the zip-line into Magens Bay."
Bolt said he feared the project would put the authority on a "slippery slope" towards further commercial development.
"Maybe next there will be a roller coaster ride," he said, later adding that Nelthropp should recuse himself from any further involvement in the project because of the apparent conflict of interest. Nelthropp was the previous owner of the proposed launch site property which he sold to Ball’s family for $1 million in 2005.
Erie Matthias, who said she uses the Nature Conservancy trail almost daily, also shared concerns of "a lot of down-the-road changes."
"They start off one way and then change," she said, asking board members what types of unmentioned infrastructure might have to be built.
Similarly, other residents voiced concerns about the effects of taxi and safari traffic that would have to remove the tourists once they have reached the arboretum and about possible concessions added to what most said was a quiet and peaceful section of Magens Bay that is home to a remarkable number of bird species and other wildlife.
Noise seemed a top concern. Speaking for The Nature Conservancy, planner Jeanne Brown said her first impression of the arboretum was “the silence.”
“Just the birds and the wind,” she said.
She said The Nature Conservancy remains neutral on the project, even though it would use mostly the part of Magens Bay owned by the conservancy.
“We have no stance,” she said. “We are open to the possibility.”
Introduced late in the meeting by Michael Ball, Canadian Daren Hreniuk, owner of The Original Canopy Tour, said as many as 250 people could take the canopy tour every day that a cruise ship is in port on St. Thomas. He said he had not yet studied how much noise those tourists might produce.
"We have less impact on the environment than a trail," Hreniuk promised.
At first, Hreniuk said that the zip-line would be suspended from a series of decks built onto existing trees so that no poles or stands would have to be built. Under further questioning from residents, however, he backtracked, saying his company would have to erect poles to support seven traverses of the line through the trees. As Hreniuk’s story changed, some residents exchanged looks, seemingly incredulous.
While the project has many hurdles yet to cross and will face many more hearings before the board makes a decision, residents attending Friday’s meeting said they were glad the plan was made public early rather than late.
"Anything that changes the ecology of the place concerns me very much," said former Magens Bay assistant manager Frank Serrano afterward, reflecting the majority sentiment expressed by residents at Friday’s meeting.
"I just want everything good for Magens Bay," he said.
