Coral Bay Marina Will Include Four Acres of Harbor

Proposed Coral Bay Marina site plan (rendering by Springline Architects LLC).

Plans for a 116-slip Coral Bay marina call for development on almost four acres of the submerged land of Coral Bay Harbor offshore from the waterfront portion of the project and the neighboring Island Blues bar and restaurant.

Three main docks with a number of finger piers, including a marine fuel dock, jut out from the shoreline of the site. The submerged land is owned by the citizens of the V.I. and held in trust by the government.

Coral Bay Marina LLC’s application for a major Coastal Zone Management (CZM) permit to construct the marina was deemed complete in April and renderings of the project are scheduled to be available to the public at Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) St. John office on the third floor of The Marketplace.

Plans for the project, designed by Spring-line Architects LLC, show three buildings located on the approximately 1.5 acre site straddling Route 107.

A two-story “marina building” on the waterfront portion of the property adjacent to Island Blues is designated for “mixed-use,” according to the plans.

A second building across Route 107 from Island Blues, will house the marina workshops, boat lockers, utilities and a laundromat. A third building, on the site of what is now Paradise Warehouse, is designated for the marina office, showers, restrooms and manger’s apartment.

Pump-Out and Desalination
The plans also include parking, a marine pump-out facility and desalination plant.

Plans for the marina were altered to eliminate dredging and minimize environmental impacts, the developer’s attorney, Brion Morrisette, previously told the St. John Tradewinds.

“We expect to eliminate dredging altogether,” Morrisette said in early-March. “The part of the dock that leads from the shore out has been lengthened. The slip areas and the functional part of the dock have been moved farther out, so we don’t have to dredge.”

The only impact on the seabed will be the installation of pilings for the dock, he added.

Lengthy Application Process
Now that the application for the island’s first marina has been deemed complete, DPNR officials must submit the project’s Environmental Assessment Report (EAR) to various governmental and non-governmental agencies, according to DPNR spokesperson Jamal Nielsen.

“We have to submit the EARs to other government agencies for external review,” Nie-lsen said. “If they come back with no technical deficiencies, then a public hearing will be scheduled.”

Public Hearings
Sixty days after DPNR officials complete their review of the major permit application, a public hearing with the St. John CZM Committee will be scheduled. The local CZM Committee decision hearing is usually conducted 30 days after the public hearing.

Plans for the marina are scheduled to be available to the public at DPNR’s St. John office on the third floor of The Marketplace.