The most recent plan for a development at Botany Bay — to be "marketed as an eco-tourism/heritage product" according to the local architect — was unveiled on the site Monday before two senators and legislative staff, and includes more than 75 acres set aside as natural and archeological/historical preserves.
William Karr told the assembled officials that in addition to preserving one-fifth of the stunning 366-acre site, the plan calls for buildings and access — including two funicular systems for transporting visitors — intended to least disturb local flora and fauna. He said he expected to submit the plan to the Department of Planning and Natural Resources on Tuesday.
"We felt this needed to be a different kind of resort," Karr told Sens. Donald "Ducks" Cole and Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg, and staff for Sens. Celestino White Sr. and Carlton Dowe. "There are incredibly rich historical and archeological areas here."
The changes to the plan, completed last week, came in response to meetings and mini-tours of the property that Karr said he held last year with DPNR, representatives of the Environmental Association of St. Thomas, UVI environmental scientists and neighborhood groups — as well as four senators: White, Roosevelt David, David Jones and Almando "Rocky" Liburd. The former estate of Warren H. Corning was purchased last year by investment group Atlantic Land Holdings LLT.
Karr pointed out nearby petroglyphs and said that archeological consultant Holly Righter had discovered pottery and Precolumbian artifacts from at least one Taino Indian settlement on the property, possibly dating back as far as 700 A.D. That is consistent with earlier studies of the area cited in the 1993 Comprehensive Analytic Study of Botany Bay carried out by DPNR, which also called the area "an extraordinary example of relatively undisturbed ecosystems and habitats." Ruins of a bridge, step-down cistern, and sugar factory once accompanied by a horse-drawn sugar mill also led to the proposed heritage preserve in the plan drawn up by Karr's firm, William M. Karr and Associates.
But Donastorg remained skeptical of the project, calling it too big for the site and pressing Karr on the issue of archeological artifacts, which he has said were removed from the site in possible violation of the Antiquities Act. Karr responded, as he did last week, that Righter removed them for date-testing, which he said is required by the Phase I exploratory permit granted by DPNR.
The size of the resort itself appears to differ little from that in earlier conceptual site plans roundly criticized by Donastorg, UVI scientists and others.
The project calls for a 100-unit hotel, 80 housing villas, 80 time-share units and 40 houses with total square footage of less than 700,000 square feet. All of the structures would utilize "pinning" construction, in which "the uphill side of the structure is connected to the ground usually through footings and rigid connections, while the rest of the structure is supported through the use of beams and columns," Karr said. "This produces a minimal amount of physical construction to the land and thus less disturbance."
Such building typically mitigates erosion, runoff and sedimentation by leaving more ground area intact.
On Monday, Karr said conversations with residents concerned about access to the West End particularly after hurricanes have led him to consider including a single dock facility just off the area called Mermaid's Chair, a starkly beautiful area of massive slabs of eroded rock angling into the sea alongside a small pebble-and-sand beach.
One Senate staffer, awed by the natural beauty, said to no one in particular, "How many people on St. Thomas have ever been out here to see this?"
