Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands, Thursday July 28, 2016
Victory was recorded for the Turks and Caicos Islands Government this week, when Chief Justice Margaret Ramsey-Hale awarded a favourable judgment in the Supreme Court in respect to a judicial review that was initially filed by the plaintiffs, developers of the Venetian and the Tuscany resorts, back in 2015.
Her Ladyship Chief Justice Ramsey-Hale noted in her judgement that the question of whether or not the Governor in Cabinet could lawfully amend regulations or policy was not a matter for the judiciary to decide but that the intent of a review was to ensure that due process was followed and that the Government had duly considered the possible environmental impacts that such amendments could have and that the evidence before her demonstrated that it had.
The nearly year-long dispute arose amidst the announcement by Cabinet that it had made amendments to the planning policy to increase the permissible height of apartments, condominiums and hotel buildings and increasing the density of the number of bedrooms per acre and based on the type of development in certain areas on Providenciales.
The arguments put forth by the developers of the sister properties located in Leeward Providenciales were that their properties would be adversely affected by the Government’s amendments to the policy and they further accused the Government of not holding widespread stakeholder consultations prior to making the decision to increase the permissible height and density of tourism related development.
However, the Government was and remains satisfied that consultation was in fact widespread and that interested persons were given ample opportunities and means to communicate and engage with the Government on the proposed amendments via stakeholder meetings, email, letters as well as through public town hall meetings.
The Premier, Hon. Dr. Rufus W. Ewing on receiving the judgement remarked, “while this is a victorious day for the Government and indeed the people of these islands, who have waited long enough and are deserving of the many opportunities that development brings, I must also register my displeasure with the amount of resources that have had to be utilized to defend the Government’s position.
“I would like to register my government’s gratitude to the technical support teams in the planning department and the Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and Planning, and the Attorney General’s Chambers and outside counsel Helen Mountfield QC for their diligence and dedication in this matter.”
