Anthony Ingroa is building this house on the hillside at Estate Denis Bay.
Department of Planning and Natural Resources officials slapped the developer of a major residential construction site in Estate Denis Bay with $10,500 in fines for violating Virgin Islands building code provisions, according to the notice of violation.
Denis Bay Properties, owned by reknowned New York-based interior designer and architect Anthony Ingrao, who owns Ingrao Inc. with partner Randy Kemper, was issued violations for excavations on two parcels of adjacent land owned by V.I. National Park without a permit, according to the violation notice.
The construction site is located on about an acre of land overlooking sensitive VINP resources below as well as Denis Bay and Gibney and Oppenheimer beaches, at Estate Denis Bay Parcels 2-A and 2-B.
In addition to removing trees on VINP land, Denis Bay Properties was fined for excavations which exceeded the scope of their building permit because the property was altered not in accordance with approved plans, according to the notice of violation.
Ingrao was also fined for building a mechanical/electric room on one of the parcels, failing to get an earth change permit for one of the park parcels and constructing a gabion basket retaining wall that was not included in his approved plans.
The DPNR fines must be paid within 30 days and the developers must submit plans and applications for a building permit to stabilize the site and improve drainage and retaining structures, according to the notice of violation.
DPNR also instructed Ingrao to “conduct activity on the site in a manner to minimize any effects on adjacent properties, submit mitigation agreements or plans approved by the national park with regard to the impacted areas,” receive approval from DPNR’s Division of Building Permits before doing any work at the site and repair the road within 45 days or tell DPNR in writing why it can’t be done in 45 days, according to the notice of violation.
DPNR’s Director of Building Permits Bevan Smith — who could not be reached for comment last week — previously told St. John Tradewinds that the department was fully aware of the concerns residents have about the potential impacts of this construction site.
“We’re very much aware of the sensitive nature of the project,” Smith told Tradewinds. “We’ve been to the site and we are overseeing the work there. We’ve been on top of it.”
The construction site is accessed by a recently renovated and widened road in Estate Susanaberg near Chelsea Heavy Equipment. There were previously two homes on Ingrao’s parcels, one of which used to be in the short-term vacation villa market.
Ingrao bought one of the two houses and began construction, reportedly disturbing guests in the other house.
“She [Vicki Bell] said that one of those houses was in the vacation villa market, but once Ingrao started construction as close to the property line as possible, renting the house was impossible and the owner sold it to him,” according to a report on the St. John Source on line news website.