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2009 Placencia Peninsula News |
Definitely not all the news that's fit to
print - and definitely not on a daily basis. But, we'll try to update
frequently about things like road conditions and significant events
affecting the area - sometimes even gossip - maybe. Let us know if you
have anything to add. But, we retain full editorial discretion over
information on this page.
21 May 2009:
Coastal Construction
Guidelines, Second Public Meeting
The Physical Planning Section
of the Ministry of Natural Resources held its second public consultation on
coastal construction guidelines last night, 20 May 2009, at the Placencia
Village Community Center. Following are notes from that meeting.
(The discussion was somewhat hard to follow at times, so some of the notes
may be also.)
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The three laws governing
coastal construction are:
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National Lands Act, which
establishes that the 66' reserve and seabed (including the beds of rivers,
lagoons and other water bodies) are national lands.
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Private Works Construction
Act, which is soon to be replaced by the Belize Building Act.
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Land Utilization Authority
Act
These three laws sometimes
contradict each other and are weakened by gaps in coverage. For
example, under the National Lands Act, the 66' reserve is not protected
outside of towns, cities and village limits. Another example is the
maximum BZ$500 fine for violating the Lands Act,. In
addition, LUA does not include representatives of the Department of the
Environment, Coastal Zone or Planning on its Board.
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The Coastal Construction
Guidelines working group is now addressing these gaps and weaknesses in
proposed new legislation. In addition, they have come up with
specific proposed guidelines based on policy meetings and public
consultations. Some of those guidelines follow. (Note: we
are supposed to get a copy of the guidelines today and will upload them and
post a link to them as soon as they are available.)
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No environmental
review/approval will be required for regular piers of 3000 square feet or
less, seawalls where erosion is a problem and the seawall will protect the
66' reserve, or for fisherfolk camps. However, must obtain a permit
from Lands, local or Central Building Authority, Port Authority if near a
navigational channel, geology for dredging or reclamation and Fisheries if
near a protected area. (These are currently existing
policies that will not be changed.)
-
Overwater cabanas, dive
shops, restaurants will require environmental review/approval , plus permit
from Lands, local or Central Building Authority, Port Authority, Fisheries,
Geology and BTB, as applicable. In addition, overwater structures
other than piers, seawalls and fisherfolk camps described above:
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Are discouraged on the
coastline of Corozal, Belize City, Dangriga and Punta Gorda, plus the
windward sides of St. George's Caye, Caye Caulker, San Pedro and Placencia;
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Cannot be located over reef,
coral or "other uses" such as fishing flats
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Can only be approved for
owners of seafront property (owners of seaview property, for example, can't
jump in front of seafront property owners and construct over-water cabanas
in the sea);
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Must incorporate the same
amount of area used for overwater structures as seafront open space on the
land owned by the property owner constructing the overwater structures.
(For example, if a seafront property owner constructs 9,000 square feet of
overwater structures, 9,000 square feet of seafront space must be left open
- no construction within this area.)
-
Other items of note brought
up in the meeting:
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No overwater private
residences allowed
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Waterfront property owners do
not own accretions and do not have a right to reclaim land lost by erosion.
(Landowners must apply for permission to reclaim land lost through erosion.)
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If a survey or deed
demarcates property lines to the high tide line, the land is still
encumbered by a national lands easement.
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The seabed under any depth of
water is not considered "land" contrary to the often-proclaimed assertions
of developers on the Placencia Lagoon.
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Fences running to the
waterline (of the Sea, rivers, lagoons, etc.) interfere with the 66' reserve
and should be reported to local authorities.
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National land/66' reserve has
to be LAND, not underwater.
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In cases where land grants
have been issued for the bed of the Sea, lagoons, rivers, etc, surveyors
have surveyed into the water without reporting to the Department of Lands
that all or a portion of the land surveyed was not land, but seabed.
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Jetties on the Placencia
Peninsula are a serious problem and are discouraged. Landowners must
obtain a permit from the Physical Planning Section before any jetty is
constructed.
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Part of the Coastal
Constructions Guidelines program is to have areas such as the Placencia
Peninsula develop a master plan for the entire Peninsula that will guide
relevant authorities in whether to grant permit applications for coastal
construction. According to members of the audience at the meeting, the
loan funds from IDB for the Peninsula include money for master plan
development. Placencia Village was encouraged to go over the master
plan developed by professional planners in 2005 to update it and have it
adopted by the Village so that it can be officially used by government
agencies in approving or denying permits.
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Community master plans will
be legislatively adopted and have the force of law.
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The plans for the IDB funding
will be submitted to the Peninsula communities within the next few weeks for
review and comment. No specific pier plan for the Placencia Village
dock area has yet been approved.
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Community members attending
the meeting were overwhelmingly opposed to overwater cabanas, but not to
overwater restaurants, dive shops, and the like because the restaurants and
shops do serve the public in some way, while overwater cabanas are
definitely private. One audience member said that allowing a large
developer to have overwater cabanas was a slippery slope - how can you deny
a resident of Seine Bight the permission to build an overwater cabana in the
Lagoon for overnight guests, when a developer of a resort like False Caye is
granted the right to have the overwater cabanas? Pretty soon, no open
water adjacent to the shore will be left open.
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The Coastal Construction
Guidelines working group will next address the cayes and will hold one more
public meeting about them.
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All existing overwater
structures are illegal.
18 May 2009
News Flash:
Wallen's is now accepting credit cards!
What next? Ice skating rink and bowling alley? Cruise ship port,
18-hole golf course, marina and casino?
Financial
Statements for Placencia Water Board and Placencia Village Council.
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Placencia Water Board:
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Placencia Village Council: March
2009 Financial Statement. (Was unable to obtain the 2008
cumulative financial report, because "it has not yet been audited by the
government." Couldn't get an unaudited version, either. The
Council says that the category "other" on the report is mostly "contract
labor.")
23 April 2009
Placencia
Tourism:
Almost a sweep for the South! At last
night's 2009 Belize Tourism Awards, the Placencia Tourism Center received
the Best Service Award, Ewort Garbutt received the Tour Guide of the Year
Award, and Lola Delgado received the Best Small Vendor Award.
Congratulations to everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All three awards are
greatly deserved!
Development
Updates:
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Harvest Caye:
Harvest Caye has been approved by the
Department of the Environment (DOE) and the National Environmental Advisory
Committee. DOE says it is waiting for the signed Environmental
Compliance Plan to be returned by the developer, so no official response yet
on whether the approval included a private airstrip in the manatee foraging
area around Harvest Caye.
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Chrysalis and
Yum Balisi.
DOE has now required both proposed developments
to submit full Environmental Impact Assessments as required by EIA
regulations. The location of both proposed resorts is within the
Pelican Range of the Southwater Caye Marine Reserve. The Pelican Range
is a World Heritage Site. UNESCO, which administers the World Heritage
Site designations, recently sent UNESCO representatives to Belize to
investigate developments occurring within Belize's World Heritage Sites.
At a meeting in Placencia, UNESCO reps expressed some dismay at the
condition of several of the World Heritage Sites and promised to communicate
with the Belize government regarding the obligation of Belize to protect
these sites.
21 April 2009
Placencia Village Council
meeting held last night (20 April 2009) at the Placencia Basketball Court.
Among the highlights:
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Water Board
Report:
Pump in Mango Creek first malfunctioned on 14
April and had to be checked by an electrician. New pump installed, but
did not have the pumping capacity of the old pump. Unfortunately, this
occurred during the Easter holiday when demand was unprecedented (over 3000
visitors in Placencia Easter weekend according to police estimates) and pump
simply could not handle the load, with the Easter crowd and new developments
such as Coco Plum drawing from the system. System simply not designed
for this amount of water usage. A new 30 hp pump has been ordered.
Also, splitting off Seine Bight and Placencia so that each has its own
separate pump to try to avoid a recurrence of what has happened.
Placencia water tower went completely dry over Easter.
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Garbage:
The Placencia Sanitation Company Ltd.
ownership transferred to the Placencia Water Board on 1 March 2009. As
of 9 May 2009, the Placencia Sanitation Company will take over
sanitation/garbage pickup for the entire Peninsula.
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Building
Regulations:
The Central Building Authority (CBA) has been
revamped and will now be enforcing a national building code that has been
patterned after the International Building Code. Not clear where
current building code regulations can be obtained by individuals. The
Placencia Village Council office has one set. Mr. Philip Waight of CBA
discussed the following aspects of the building code (some of this was hard
to follow, so we hope the following is correct):
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ALL buildings, residential,
commercial, institutional, will need to have building plans approved by CBA
prior to commencing construction. Plans submitted must include
structural and electrical plans.
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Plans for residential
buildings of 1,000 square feet or less can be drawn up by "technicians."
(It was not explained who or what a technician is, or how you find one.)
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Plans for residential
buildings from 1,001 square feet to 2,999 square feet must have plans drawn
up by either a registered Belize architect or engineer.
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Plans for residential
buildings of 3,000 square feet or more must be drawn up by BOTH a Belize
registered architect AND engineer.
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ALL commercial,
institutional and public buildings must submit plans drawn up by BOTH a
Belize registered architect or engineer.
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Lot density is limited to 66%
of lot size.
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Setbacks of 15 feet (not sure
whether this applies to commercial, residential, or both).
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Commercial buildings (stores,
restaurants, hotels, etc.) must be inspected by a registered civil engineer
every 4 years and the result of the inspection submitted to CBA.
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Minimum of 3 copies of
stamped plans (stamped on every page) must be submitted to CBA.
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Regulations apply not only to
new construction, but also to demolition, change of use (as from residential
to commercial), structural renovations.
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Construction cannot commence
until CBA approval received and copy of approved plans must be kept on the
construction site at all times.
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CBA has its own inspectors
who are authorized to issue stop or change orders.
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CBA can order demolition (at
owners' expense) of buildings which do not comply with plans approved by CBA.
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Must have all other required
governmental approvals before submitting plans to CBA - such as dredging,
Environmental Compliance Plan from Department of the Environment, permits
issued by Land Utilization Authority, etc.
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Plans must be approved or
disapproved in 45 days after the date of submission to CBA.
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Building
Height Restriction. Area
Representative Melvin Hulse stated that Cabinet approved last year a maximum
building height on the Peninsula of 40 feet. However, Waight said he
had seen no documentation of the 40 foot height restriction.
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Police
Report:
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Easter: 6 additional
police added for entire Easter weekend holiday, additional 15 for Sunday
night's concert. 3,000 visitors. Police reported only 1 stabbing
and 1 fight.
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From 1 January - 20
April 2009, 0 murders, 7 assaults (6 solved), 5 drug trafficking arrests
(219 grams of pot and crack seized). Police barracks almost completed.
When finished, Placencia will receive 10 additional police offers, 2 of whom
will be women
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Red Moon
Development (Zabaneh development in Lagoon):
Village
should receive final information from government by Friday of this week so
that developers can pay purchase price to Village. (Purchase price
estimated to be BZ$400,000.)
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Preschool
Building: Architectural
plans donated and Mr. Waight from CBA volunteered to do electrical plans for
the preschool building.
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School
Expansion:
Government of Belize is in negotiations with the
heirs or Richard Hoare to exchange land he owned behind St. John's School
for other land in Belize so that St. John's can be expanded.
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Illegal
Cutting of Mangroves and Dumping:
Property owner/developer who bulldozed mangroves without a permit and dumped
them in the Sea (in the Bakader area) has been fined by Forestry AND ordered
to replant the mangroves and clean up the dumping. PCSD (Peninsula
Citizens for Sustainable Development) will oversee developer/owner
compliance.
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Village Lots
by Placencia Airstrip:
Government has re-acquired this property
and has had it surveyed into 150 lots. Government is now getting
estimates on costs of filling land. Area Representative Melvin Hulse
estimates that cost will be BZ$4-5 million. Lot prices will not
reflect cost of filling. Majority of cost to be picked up by national
government.
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Fire Service:
According to Minister Hulse, Placencia
will be getting a fire truck, fire station (at airstrip), first response
station at police station and hydrants.
19 February
2009
Developments:
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Coastal
Construction Guidelines: With
the goal of sustainable development, PACT (Protected Area Conservation
Trust) has funded a program to strengthen governmental oversight of coastal
construction projects such as docks/piers, bulkheads, groins, seawalls,
marinas, land reclamation/creation, fish farms and over-the-water
restaurants, bars and cabanas.
Public input into this strengthened governmental oversight was solicited
last night by the Physical Planning Section (PPS) of the Lands and Surveys
Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The primary problems identified for the Placencia area (including the cayes)
is lack of enforcement, lack of capability for local enforcement and de
minimis fines, all of which encourage developers to ignore the law and to
treat fines as a cost of doing business.
Notes from the meeting can be downloaded from the
Placencia Documents site.
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Chrysalis Resort: This resort is proposed for Big and
Little Channel Cayes within the Southwater Marine Reserve. Under
Belize's Environmental Impact Assessment regulations, an EIA must be
submitted as part of the approval application for any proposed resort within
a protected area. An EIA has not been submitted. Instead, the
Department of the Environment (DOE) has allowed the developers to submit a
"Limited Level Study" and has failed to post the LLS on its Website as
promised in a public notice of meeting about the proposed resort. The
notice was published once, in The Guardian, and comments were due the day
after the public meeting., essentially denying public consultation. As
of 19 February 2009, the LLS has STILL not been posted on the DOE Website.
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Harvest Caye: Proposed
are:
- Airport
- Apartments:
Seven 3-story buildings - 14 one bedroom apartments, 28 2-bedroom
apartments and 14 3-bedroom apartments - total of 122 rooms in 56 apartments.
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Beach villas to be constructed on stilts (6 feet in height)
(10 one-bedrooms, 5 2-bedrooms - 20 rooms in 15 buildings)
- Over-the-water villas (not clear how many
on smaller part of caye
- 10 acres of hotel
rooms, over-the-water villas, conference center and utility areas (large
part of Harvest Caye)
- Spa
- 3 restaurants (one on a pier, one on the
beach and one in an open area
- Marina
- 4 piers
- Retail shopping center
- 2 beach areas
371,628.7 cubic meters of fill will be dredged
from northeast of the caye, lagoon, access channel area (dredged to 8-10
feet) and area of proposed runway 760 guests at full capacity.
Water will come from Big Creek.
Garbage will go to the Big Creek dump.
76 employees will be needed, with 26 living
on-site
The Road: Road
work seems to be proceeding apace. No pavement yet, still
working on the base.
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