St. Maarten Private Eye

I returned from St. Martin in February 2008.

I saw the progress on the Cupecoy Yacht Club and the area has been transformed.

While I agree it is unsettling that the environmental safeguards were circumvented, the low-rise nature (7 floors and under) of the development is significantly better that the Sapphire or The Cliff, which are just high rise concrete structures.

The "Village" will include retail area open to the public and a marina. It appears the entire complex will be muted in soft colors, owing its ambience to the Mediterranean.

You can see a model of the completed development on www.cupecoyyachtclub.net and judge for yourself.

The bigger problem with development in general on the island, seems to be the increased car traffic that accompanies these projects. Something will have to be done with the roads. My suggestion, albeit not a native, would be to redo the areas that require the bridges to go up several times a day in at least 2 locations that I know of. While expensive, it might be feasible to dig tunnels where there are now bridges. Or conversely, reconstruct the roads to elevate high enough to remove the bridges, not sure that is even possible.

But as the roads cannot be materially widened, I would think all possibilities should be on the table.

St. Martin is a beautiful island with beautiful people and should find some way to balance itself between remaining static and moving forward in a responsible way.