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Coral Bay Residents Protest Moravian Church Plans

July 24, 2004 – Waving placards and wearing t-shirts that said things like "Save the Heart and Soul of Coral Bay," about three-dozen Coral Bay residents gathered Saturday in front of Emmaus Moravian Church to protest the lack of community input in the Moravian Church's proposed development.
They were under the impression that the Moravian Church Provincial Elders Conference planned to meet Saturday at the church to discuss the development.
However, Moravian Church attorney Karl Percell said Saturday that the Provincial Elders Conference plans to meet at the church at 10 a.m. July 31 to discuss its plans with the church members, not this Saturday as the community heard. Percell said he didn't see any reason why community members would not be welcome at the July 31 meeting.
The church has floated a plan to build a 150-room hotel as well as 200 condominiums, a 50-slip marina, a supermarket, and an office building on the 10 acres the church owns in the heart of Coral Bay. Percell said those numbers are not engraved in stone, and that the final plans are open to discussion.
"I don't think the church is going to shove anything down their throats," he said.
The 45-minute protest happened after some community members heard late Friday that Coral Bay's most revered elder, Guy Benjamin, had been denied permission to address the Provincial Elders Conference.
Benjamin on Saturday confirmed that he was told on Thursday he would not be allowed to speak to them because the deadline for speaking was July 17. He said that no one announced in church that there was a deadline.
Percell said that it was apparently a misunderstanding, and could see no reason why Benjamin could not have his say.
The protesters, under the impression that Benjamin, who is a Moravian Church member, would not be allowed to speak, discussed how they could have input into the development and work with church members to ensure that the Moravian Church Council builds a project that fits Coral Bay.
The decision to develop the 10 acres followed the partial settlement of a 10-year-old lawsuit between the V.I. Port Authority and the Moravian Church. Both claimed ownership of the land. Territorial Court Judge Rhys Hodge ruled on June 4 in the Moravian Church's favor.
However, local church members were not aware of the scope of what the Moravian Church Conference had planned. They read about it in the local news media, but Percell said the Moravian Church Conference had discussed the matter with the Emmaus Moravian Church hierarchy. Apparently, they neglected to tell the rank and file members.
"If they are selling our land, why not notify us in advance," Benjamin said.
Benjamin did not attend the protest. He said the church needs the money to pay taxes.
The protesters said they need to be included in the plan's discussion because they live in Coral Bay. "It's our community too," Bonny Corbeil said.
Corbeil and others said they were missing lots of information, including the church's tax situation, to help them better understand why it needs to develop the area.
While some Coral Bay residents at the protest said the architectural drawings for the project were already developed, Percell said they were only preliminary schematic drawings.
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