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Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesHOTELIER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PLAN 8

HOTELIER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST PLAN 8

A leading St. Thomas hotelier has come out against the waterfront highway plan that calls for filling in part of the harbor.
"It is unfortunate that such a plan would ever be on the table," said John Murphy, referring to the current proposal, known as Plan 8, that calls for a four-lane highway to be built around the Legislature building.
"We will oppose this. It won't work."
Murphy, general manager of the Renaissance Grand Beach Resort, said his feelings were representative of the majority of hoteliers and others who attended the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association's general meeting Wednesday.
The St. Thomas-St. John Chamber of Commerce presented that group with an alternative vision of what could be on the Charlotte Amalie waterfront –– cafes and artists' stalls, bike and running paths, a gathering place for tourists and residents with shade trees and landscaping from Havensight to Frenchtown.
The chamber opposes Plan 8 and is drumming up support for its alternative, which focuses on beautification rather than traffic-reduction.
Murphy, who termed the chamber's presentation "excellent," added, "We need to do things differently," including embracing the waterline of the harbor and having beautiful landscaping along it.
"Freeways won't do it," he said. "We have a certain mystique here that we need to protect."
Murphy rejected a four-lane highway as not fitting the island's cultural atmosphere.
"This is not L.A.," he said.
But his worries go further than aesthetics. He thinks a heavy construction project that could take eight to 10 years to complete would drive the cruise ships away.
"It would be an economic disaster" that would tie up traffic and make a mess of the waterfront area for what could be years," he said.

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