The morning after the shock decision by two members of the St John CZM Committee to approve the Summers End marina permits, I decided to take a long walk to collect my thoughts.  When I returned there was a brilliant golden fist in the sky, a sign of solidarity, and I wrote these words on Facebook …

First the Shock … and Then the Healing

I went on one of my favorite 8 mile walks this afternoon … down Bordeaux trail, over Lameshure, up Reef Bay, then back home along Bordeaux mountain road … we live in a spectacularly beautiful place …

Something I learn each time I take a hike is that by placing one foot in front of the other, we can cover great distances … a good lesson for today.

I also had time to think about the CZM decision and what it means …

One of the foundations of Coastal Zone Management is that decisions are made by local committees … this is both a strength as well as a weakness.  By placing decision making authority with local residents it ensures that the people with local knowledge are empowered to make the important development decisions impacting their community.  This is a good thing.  Unfortunately it also means that the people who make those decisions need to live with their family, relatives and neighbors who may well be positively or negatively impacted by their decisions.  This is often a bad thing.

It was clear to me, based on their tone of voice, their total lack of engagement, and their lack of questions, that these two CZM members had decided to take the path of least resistance – to basically do nothing.  They took the findings of DPNR/CZM staff verbatim, added nothing to the resolutions, read them into the record and voted.  This was not a vote of affirmation following an engaged dialog.  This was passing the buck to the next authority to do the dirty work.

I cannot honestly say how I would have acted had I been in Messrs. Penn and Roberts shoes.  We need to balance our feelings of ethics, our loyalty to friends and family, our commitment to the environment, and after balancing all of those factors, come to a decision.  Being on these boards is a thankless position and we often find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.  These two gentlemen took the path of inaction, and they simply nodded their heads in approval.

People will have theories of coercion, bribery, political pressures, but I honestly do not believe that was what happened today.  I believe these two intelligent, well educated, well informed men made a calculated decision to not follow the requirements of the law, and to do what they felt was wanted by their community.

So we shouldn’t rehash what has happened, but we should focus on the next steps and redouble our efforts to make sure that our community is protected from reckless development.