St. Maarten Private Eye

The Coral Shore development is going to be one big frigging eyesore. I have a lot of imagination but I can not see this in anyway as a desirable property or rather not one that someone would spend a lot of money on to live. Rumors (again!) have it that the beach-front "villa's" ( I would refer to them as glorified town-houses) have been lowered in price to about 1.5 million dollars. A steal of a deal, right?

This is one of the messiest building-sites I have witnessed in a long time. There is some of the shoddiest construction work performed as well. Paper thin plastering on the outside of the buildings done in a poor manner. Building of railings with blocks in stead of using quality glass or aluminium railings. Windows and doors that look like something that was bought in a sale of 1970's superfluous inventory, and so on.......

Building density is enourmous and should be well over 50 percent.

Talking about building density: the rainbow project you referred to does not deviate from the artist's impression as far as number of floors is concerned, but also the tennis-courts, center-plaza and other amenities have been eliminated to build more buildings. Please take a look at recent pictures that are posted on the site. Building density must be close to- or over 70 percent.

But yeah, what to do? No need to cry over spilled milk, now is there? And that is exactly in what position all of these projects are.

Planning permits are issued with guidelines and rules, but at the same time give the Executive Council (RM?) - as this body seems fit - the right to permit amendments to a project, be it building height, building density, lay out, and whatever else you have. That is the problem that needs to be dealt with. Once a planning permit is issued (granted) no more changes should be made unless these are subject to the same public scrutiny and due process as the original permit. If not, the whole matter is a joke and a farce.

Observer1602