By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

More than 3,000 North Eleuthera “common land owners” are concerned the Government has “put the car before the horse” on the compulsory acquisition of 628 acres for expansion of the area’s airport.

Dorlan Curtis, executive secretary for the Harbour Island Commonage Committee, told Tribune Business the several thousand owners it represents also want to ensure the timely payment of compensation for the loss of their land-holdings “doesn’t get pushed under the rug” as the Davis administration proceeds with North Eleuthera airport’s $55m development.

He explained that, while the Committee and those it represents are not opposed to the airport’s expansion or the Government’s acquisition of their land for this purpose, they are instead concerned that construction work appears to have started and be progressing without any official consultation or talks with themselves.

Noting the similarities between the present situation and tensions that surfaced when the North Eleuthera airport expansion plans surfaced under the former Minnis administration, Mr Curtis told this newspaper that prior talks with the Government about the commoners enjoying a share of the per passenger departure, landing and other fees “never came to fruition”.

Stating that it is now “fast forward” to 2025, he added: “As a commonage we don’t necessarily object to the airport. We do object to the way proceedings are being handled. We’re not being consulted in any official capacity as representatives of the body, and the Government has already started to develop on the land without properly acquiring the property.”

Mr Davis said it appeared that a company had already been contracted, and is presently doing, land clearance, excavation and moving soil. With the Government having formally given notice that it plans to acquire 628 acres of commonage property to facilitate the airport’s expansion under the Acquisition of Land Act, he added that negotiations by previous committees appeared to have produced no results.

“We do acknowledge that the Government has a right to compulsory acquisition of the land. We’re not disagreeing with that,” Mr Davis told Tribune Business. “But, as legal land owners, there are protocols for that to happen under the Acquisition of Land Act, and that’s what we’re requesting - due diligence and respect for the land owners to be consulted.

“That’s not happened, and they’re putting the cart before the horse. This is just me personally, but personally I would like at a minimum to be at the table for discussions on the development. I think we are due that as legal land owners. Regardless, if the Government acquires the land, we want some say on what’s happening with the land we live and reside on.

“Outside of being owners, we’re still constituents of North Eleuthera and residents. If a major development is happening, we need to be part of what’s happening and for there to be actual transparency. That’s a minimum.”

Tribune Business has reported on numerous examples where it has years, and often decades, for the Government to pay private owners for land it has acquired in the public interest - for example, use as road corridors - using its compulsory powers under the Acquisition of Land Act.

One recent ruling from the Supreme Court involves Nassau Exotic Gardens, and the Government’s compulsory acquisition of two tracts of land in The Grove and Perpall Tract areas of western New Providence, via the Acquisition of Land Act that dates from last century - 1999 or some 26 years ago.

Mr Davis said obtaining timely and fair compensation from the Government is another top priority for the commoners, telling this newspaper: “I think that’s one of the major concerns. The schedule of compensation, that’s one of the biggest issues for the commoners - at least from what I’ve heard.

“We want to make sure this issue doesn’t get pushed under the rug, personally speaking, and that it’s at the fore in conversations over the development of the airport. Just as the Government has a right to acquire, the owners have a right to inquire. We’re just making sure our rights are upheld, both as Bahamians and commoners.”

Mr Davis added that, until the plans and design for the new North Eleuthera airport are released publicly, “it’s really theoretical to say everyone will benefit. You can say that because of the expected increase in airlift traffic theoretically because of the expanded footprint but is that a one:one benefit”?

Kenneth Romer, the Government’s director of aviation, did not respond to Tribune Business inquiries before press time last night. Attorneys for the commoners, acting under a previous committee, in February 2021 sought $25.889m in compensation on behalf of their clients for the past use of their property by the Government and its agencies.

This was broken down into $9.3m and $3.5m for the 150-acre and 100-acre tracts that comprise the existing North Eleuthera Airport, the latter of which was taken in 1986. The wellfields and dump site were priced at $12.339m and $750,000, respectively, and it was said the commoners will also seek “damages for the permanent scarring and abuse of the land” by those two facilities.

The 450-acre and 30-acre sites taken for the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s wellfields/reverse osmosis plant and the district dump, respectively, were taken in the mid-1990s. The attorneys argued that in the circumstances the Government was “a willful trespasser”. This claim appears not to have moved forward.

However, Tribune Business previously reported that the issue’s roots date back to the pre-colonial era of the 1950s, when the decision was made to construct North Eleuthera’s airport on a portion of 6,000 acres that were subject to a Crown commonage grant on July 1, 1842.

Foster Clarke, the then-MP, wrote a 1956 letter to RE A Sweetnam, a crown lands officer, warning that “the preliminary question of granting title to the land should be settled before constructing the airstrip or the road” given “very strong opposition” by some Harbour Island/Dunmore Town residents who felt their property rights were being violated.

His warning went unheeded, and the North Eleuthera Airport’s construction proceeded in 1959 amid alleged government promises that the commoners would be compensated via a portion of the aircraft landing fees collected.

That, though, never happened even though the airport was expanded by an estimated 150 acres in the 1970s to take it to 250 acres. The Government then came back for more land in the mid-1990s via the 450-acre wellfield and, again, in the late 1990s and early 2000s for the 30-acre Harbour Island garbage dump.

Sources familiar with events, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the commoners received “not a cent” for the Government’s use of their land, which ultimately resulted in a 1996 legal action against the Government on the Harbour Island Commonage Committee’s behalf that was brought by former minister of state for legal affairs, Damian Gomez.

The legal action petered out as the Committee’s membership changed, but talks between the then-Harbour Island Commonage Committee and the Government, headed by Algernon Cargill, former director of aviation, on establishing a partnership arrangement between the two sides began in early 2019. This was to develop and gazzette “rules” that would enable the commoners to licence the airport land to the Government.

The 1896 Commonage Act permits at least 20 persons to hold a right in non-partitioned land with others, and have these rights protected. Only registered commoners are allowed to work on or possess this land, meaning that all others - including the Government - who encroach on it can technically be treated as trespassers.

However, the Minnis administration reversed course in April/May 2020 when it revealed it would acquire 658 acres for the airport - the 250-acre existing site, plus an extra 408 acres - via the Acquisition of Land Act rather than the original partnership proposal. 

Mr Cargill said the Government changed course because it felt owning the land would provide the airport with a more secure future rather than leasing it from the commonage. The acreage sought then is similar to what is being acquired now.

Footnote

Expansion - Page XX

Headline

‘Just as Govt can acquire,

we have right to inquire’