• Boutique hotels can be ‘cloaked’ as family homes

• Ex-minister spies loophole in system he oversaw

• ‘Self-describing’ project nature ‘undermines’ Act

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The immediate past environment minister has warned that the permitting system “creates a backdoor” for developers “to cloak their boutique hotels as single family residences” and evade Bahamian law.

Romauld Ferreira, who held the post until last year’s general election, warned in an April 12, 2022, report that developers can “circumvent the requirements” for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP), and avoid public consultation and scrutiny, by improperly describing the nature of their projects as residential - rather than commercial - when applying for a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC).

This, he added, threatens to “undermine the very purpose” for which the Environmental Planning and Protection Act was implemented under the Minnis administration, namely to regulate real estate-related development. And it would allow developers to “evade and avoid complying with Bahamian environmental law”.

Mr Ferreira raised these concerns in a report produced for a group of Staniel Cay homeowners pursuing a Judicial Review action seeking to quash the CEC granted to a fellow resident for an increasingly controversial project on the island located in the Exuma cays. They are also seeking Supreme Court orders requiring that the developer, Kevin Doyle and his DeepBlue Properties vehicle, produce an EIA and EMP, and that there be public consultation on the development.

Mr Doyle, while admitting that he initially planned to develop a 16-room boutique resort called Hotel Thunderball, named after the James Bond movie that was filmed nearby, said this plan had been abandoned due to the “harassment” received from fellow residents and he was now constructing a single family residence on the site as permitted by the CEC (see other article on Page 1B).

However, the size and scale of that residence has led his opponents to believe that the boutique hotel is still being built - albeit in the guise of a single family residence. The latter still has eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, general staff and chef quarters, multiple kitchens, four bars, eight washers and dryers, and multiple boat racks, pools, septic tanks and grease pits. Mr Doyle, though, says this is needed to accommodate his large family.

Mr Ferreira, ironically, was still minister responsible for the environment when the DEPP issued Mr Doyle and DeepBlue Properties with their CEC for that “single family residence” on August 9, 2021, signed by then-director Rochelle Newbold. 

In a report that identifies purported weaknesses in a system whose implementation he oversaw as environment minister, Mr Ferreira said: “Historically, typical single family residences on Staniel Cay do not have the number of bedrooms, kitchens, pools and bars as what is being proposed. Further, typical single family residences do not require such extensive mining, nor do they generate such massive quantities of mined material.”

Dr Rhianna Neely-Murphy, the DEPP’s current director, conceded in court evidence that while Mr Doyle’s project was “above average for a single family residence, it is not without precedent in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas”. Mr Ferreira, in response, said that while such “precedent” may exist in Lyford Cay, Old Fort Bay and the Ocean Club, it was unheard of on Staniel Cay.

Asserting that easement restrictions, requiring that there be a 15-foot buffer between the “development footprint” and rocky shoreline, had been “grossly violated” by DeepBlue Properties, the former minister added: “The excavations are not minor. Nor are they typical of a single family residence in Staniel Cay, Exuma. So much material has been mined and excavated from the site, it has overwhelmed the site itself.

“Upon true construction and interpretation, the nature and scope of this project is typical of a boutique hotel on Staniel Cay, not a single family residence. DeepBlue Properties, by not describing their development as a boutique hotel during the application process for a CEC, were able to circumvent the requirements for an EIA...

“This development is atypical. It couches itself as a single home residence in name and form only, but in actuality the environmental impacts associated with the construction and operation of this single family residence are in keeping with that of a boutique hotel. In fact, the impact to the environment caused thus far by this development have already exceeded those of two adjacent boutique hotels.”

Mr Ferreira argued that the case exposed “the inherent danger in allowing developers to self-describe” their projects when applying for permits and approvals”, adding that DeepBlue Properties’ development “will exceed those of a typical boutique hotel” on Staniel Cay during the construction phase, meaning that the DEPP should mandate an EIA be produced.

“To not do so creates a backdoor as it allows developers to self-describe projects to avoid legal compliance and circumvent the law,” he argued. “In this instance, the empirical evidence is clear and incontrovertible. To allow this project to proceed without an EIA would be to allow developers to cloak their boutique hotels as single family residences for the sole purpose of evading and complying with Bahamian environmental law.

“This sets a dangerous precedent likely to attract more developers of the same kind who seek to evade and avoid the law. More importantly, it undermines the very purpose for which the law was enacted; to regulate development.”