PHILIPSBURG - After a failed attempt in Civil Court in December to halt Dock Maarten N.V. construction plans, St. Maarten Harbour Holding Company (SHHC) N.V. filed an appeal centred on a building permit and was heard in administrative court on Monday.

 

The Court will give its decision October 19.

 

The Harbour is against a building permit for expansion issued by the Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI on July 21, 2014. The Harbour argues that the construction forms both a hindrance to vessels and a danger.

 

Attorney Marcha Woudstra also argued that the decision by the ministry to issue the permit had not taken into careful consideration previous reports made, and that the decision was at odds with the law. As before, the Harbour argued that it had exclusive rights to pursue all harbour activities in Great Bay and that Dock Maarten’s expansion encroached on this.

 

Attorney Richard Gibson Jr. also said a few words on behalf of VROMI, challenging the terms of the Harbour’s concession, illustrating to the judge that the master plan allowed space for the expansion and commenting on the fact that despite the Harbour’s focus on danger and hindrance, there was little to substantiate the claims.

 

A VROMI representative present for the hearing said the ministry had been in discussions with the Harbour since 2012 about development in the area and that the “big picture” had been clear to everyone, amongst other points.

 

Having little to substantiate the claims of hindrance and danger was also a point argued by attorney Roeland Zwanikken on behalf of Dock Maarten. Toward the end of the hearing, Judge Katja Mans asked whether more evidence could be given on this subject.

 

Zwanikken argued that the Harbour had needed to file any objections to the building permit within the required legal period of six weeks and, if it did not, needed to show that there were circumstances beyond its control as to why it had not appealed on time. Even if the Harbour did not know at the time, it did not take immediate action on finding out, he said.

 

He previously also had pointed out that the Harbour knew about the longstanding extension plans.

 

As previously reported, Dock Maarten plans to construct a marina with a pier to accommodate ultra- and giga-yachts exceeding lengths of 100 metres. SHHC had filed an injunction with the Court of First Instance on November 17, 2014, in its efforts to halt construction of the pier at the marina located at Battery Point in Point Blanche.

 

The Dock Maarten extension started in October 2014, with the initial phase of expanding a breakwater originally built in 1984. The project will entail creating a deeper basin for the facility that services ultra- and giga-yachts, and is to result in additional protection of boat slips belonging to the company, as well as Bobby’s Marina.

 

A building permit for the expansion of Dock Maarten, owned by the Deher family since 1979, was issued by the then-VROMI Minister on July 21, 2014. SHHC had requested that the Court forbid construction on land or underwater parcels in the area of which it is the official concession holder and called on the Court to order Dock Maarten to remove a constructed stone jetty from SHHC’s concession area.

 

The then-Island Territory granted SHHC in July 2007 the exclusive right to pursue all harbour activities in Great Bay. According to SHHC, this meant that Dock Maarten was acting in violation of the concession, as it had been filling in water parcels and was building a stone jetty. Dock Maarten also had failed to submit its building plans to SHHC, it had been stated.

 

The concession, which was granted for 30 years, comprises Great Bay and Cole Bay and concerns all harbour activities. Dock Maarten, represented at the injunction by attorneys Zwanikken and Norbert Hijmans, had requested a permit for its expansion plans at Ministry VROMI on December 6, 2013.

 

SHHC had sent a letter to then-Minister of VROMI Maurice Lake on April 7, 2014, in which it stated that Dock Maarten’s development plans concerned a newly-to-be-developed harbour facility in the concession area of Great Bay. However, SHHC had not been informed of these development plans by the developer.

 

In its letter, SHHC also had asked the Minister to provide all information concerning the development plans, for it to determine whether the development plans were in accordance with the Ordinance on Harbour Concessions and the Decree Designation Great Bay and Cole Bay.

 

However, SHHC never received the requested information and a building permit to construct “a rock revetment at Juancho Yrausquin Boulevard” was issued on July 21, 2014.

 

Based on the so-called LAR Ordinance on administrative legal procedures, SHHC could have filed objections to the building permit. As it had failed to do so within the required legal period of six weeks and there also was no evidence that Dock Maarten had not adhered to stipulations in the building permit, the Judge arrived at the conclusion in December that Dock Maarten’s building activities were lawful.

 

Therefore, the Court rejected SHHC’s requests to order a building stop and demolition of already-constructed structures.

 

After receiving the judgement, SHHC immediately filed an appeal against the building permit with the Court. Lawyer Chris van Amersfoort said at the time that it was because the permit had not been made known to the public, let alone to SHHC.

 

The Daily Herald