The issue of crown land and its allocation continues to be a major talking point in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The latest proposed Crown Land Policy drew criticism from some members of the Consultative Forum who saw it as a further example that the interim government is treating Turks and Caicos Islanders like “a bunch of crooks.”
Forum member Dr. Linda Williams said recently at meeting that “Too many of the things that are now being put to us seem to be saying to the world, ‘This is a bunch of crooks, and we have to design things in a way to put them in order.’”
Her comments came in response to the suggestion that the administration of the country’s Crown Land Policy be moved from control of TCI elected ministers and Cabinet to the Attorney General’s Office. Crown land advisor Jon Llewellyn suggested the change “in order to ensure independence of Crown land management and to restore confidence in wider land administration by government.”
Under the Crown land policy enacted in 2005, the former government gave huge discounts on Crown land worth billions of dollars to individuals and developers, making little money for government and leaving only 23 percent of all developable land for Belongers to seek ownership today.
Some of those allocations are being challenged by the interim government’s Civil Recovery Team of lawyers to reclaim property for the government. Those claims include huge tracts on Joe Grant Cay and Salt Cay, while other allocations on Dellis Cay and the Third Turtle development are under review. Several individuals also are accused of obtaining Crown land for personal residential use, then wrongly flipping the property to developers for huge profits.
The new policy would require people who have pending applications for Crown land to make new applications, but forum members argued that those people should be given preference under the new policy in the order in which pending applications were submitted.
Llewellyn said it would be inefficient to do that with more than 6,000 pending applications, given the limited resources of the Crown Land Unit. “There are literally just boxes of them,” he said. Llewellyn said he would look into finding a way to prioritize pending applications under the new policy.
