Ten million dollars in infrastructure at the Baker’s Bay development on Guana Cay, Abaco will be made available to neighbouring residents, developers revealed during a media tour of the $500 million project this week.
The project, which encompasses almost half of the three-mile long island, has been met with opposition from some residents who fear that the development poses a major environmental risk to the third largest barrier reef in the world, which lies only 50 feet from the shore.
But the Discovery Land Company recently went on the defensive, answering its critics with a list of initiatives that it says translates into an environmentally sensitive project which takes into account the concerns voiced by some of the cay’s residents.
The developers said that one of those initiatives includes a sewer, water and solid waste transfer systems that will be made available for expansion by residents of Guana Cay, although it was not clear who would pay for the expansion.
“A service pier for all Great Guana Cay and a beach park and community centre designed and constructed by the developer will also be made available to the public,” said Dr Livingston Marshall, Baker’s Bay senior vice president of environmental and community affairs.
Since the project was announced earlier this year, the Save Guana Cay Reef group has been fighting to protect the area, and recently the group won the right to have its application for an injunction heard in the Supreme Court.
Until the matter is heard some time before the end of January, Baker’s Bay has agreed to stop all essential work on the project.
The main concern of critics centres on the golf course planned for the project and the dredging to make way for the project’s 180-slip marina.
The group believes that the associated pollutants will kill the reef, and claims that the marina is set to be dredged behind Joe’s Creek, the island’s only and last fish estuary.
But developers say that the golf course will be the most “environmentally sensitive ever built,” and will include grasses that require virtually no chemicals; coastal buffers; and an internal drainage system.
As for concerns about Joe’s Creek, the developers have pointed out that the majority of the mangroves and the Guana Cay bonefish flats will all be preserved and not altered by the development.
To date, the project has created 170 jobs for people who are both employees and contractors of Baker’s Bay, and has invested a total of $40 million.
Two million dollars have been spent employing/contracting with Bahamians, and developers have predicted that eventual spending will be in excess of $75 million over the next five years.
Other expenditures listed by the developers included $4.5 million on local materials and supplies, which is projected to reach more than $100 million by the time the project is scheduled for completion in 2010; $1.5 million spent on taxes paid to the government, with eventual taxes paid estimated at $549.3 million over 10 years; and $100,000 spent on charitable donations.
“There are also entrepreneurial opportunities for architects, engineers, real estate brokers and direct opportunity to run general stores, boutiques, bar and grill and other shops in the marina,” said Dr. Marshall.
The expected development plan for the project will include 196 home sites, 42 Beach Club cottages, 22 Mangrove Bungalows, 34 Boathouse Villas, 28 Marina Inn units (equating 75-100 hotel beds), 14 Marina town lots and 30 Hillside Village homes, or less then 400 homes on 585 acres.
Dr. Marshall said that 50 percent of the site will remain in “natural” open space and more than 70 percent open space, including the golf course and marina.
“Dwelling units per acre are much less compared to settlement or other parts of Guana Cay,” he said.
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
