Chaguaramas: National Park or National car park? by Marc Laurent de Verteuil Investment on virgin lands, a golf course resort in Tucker Valley with a hotel with a minimum capacity of 100 rooms; high quality residential development including bungalows, townhouses and apartments. This is the eco-tourism vision that the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) has for Tucker Valley. And they are willing to sacrifice at least 282 acres of land for it, inside an area that should be declared a National ParkIt is all in an online video titled “Chaguaramas Investor Prospectus https://youtube/watch?v=Nrg3h9iO4ac#t=13s The video repeats how lush the land is. It is even called “virgin” which gives hope that the delicate nature of the land is understood, yet that is intermingled with terms like “prime real estate,” “unlimited potential for foreign and local investment.” The environment gets no more than a passing mention... This immense development will exponentially increase the number of users of the North West peninsula. Can the area sustain that? What is the carrying capacity? Has any such study ever been done? If not, how can such intense development be proposed? This is the first step towards any master plan for the area. Traffic management is already a nightmare. The road leading from Westmoorings to Chaguaramas reached its capacity decades ago. It is a lovely, naïve idea that additional hoards of visitors can be attracted to the Chaguaramas peninsula on a village road that has daily deadlock and traffic jams. What will they do, build a superhighway through the sea, or perhaps dig a multilane tunnel through the mountains? What will be the cost, both financial and environmental? In the meantime traffic woes will strangle the life out of existing profitable Chaguaramas-based businesses, defeating the purpose of trying to monetise the value of the peninsula. guardian.co.tt/columnist/2014-12-22/chaguaramas-national-park-or-national-car-park
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 13:05:39 +0000
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