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Virgin Islands National Park has compiled the following frequently asked questions regarding the redevelopment of Caneel Bay. If you desire more information, please check out the ovewrview information here, or submit your question via email for response.
A Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, is an official decision document for an Environmental Assessment (EA), in this case the EA for the Caneel Bay Redevelopment and Management Plan. A FONSI marks the end of the planning process in which different alternatives were considered. There were two options analyzed in the EA, an Alternative A (No action/ no redevelopment) and Alternative B (Action/ redevelopment). The National Park Service (NPS) has selected Alternative B, thus the action to redevelop overnight accommodations at Caneel Bay. The NPS considered and responded to substantive comments. Because the substantive comments did not result in the need for significant changes to an alternative for consideration or a need for reevaluation of environmental issues and/or impacts, and the results of the analysis showed that the actions would not result in significant adverse impacts, the NPS Regional Director signed a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) that identified the selected alternative and summarized the environmental effects.
The decision establishes the creation of several management zones in the Caneel Bay peninsula, described in Table 1 of the FONSI. The most noticeable will be the Lodging Zone, where visitors will be provided an overnight experience commensurate with storied legacy and site history of Caneel Bay. The overnight experience will be that of a twenty-first century eco-resort. The Day Use Zone will include beaches with commercial services such as food services and equipment rentals. And the Conservation Zone will reestablish the Turtle Point and Hawksnest Trails, with some limited expansion of pedestrian trails to support connectivity throughout the site.
The National Park Service transition will focus on public health and safety. The NPS is currently communicating with the RUE holder about scheduling contaminant removal and inspection of the reverse osmosis plant, as well as assessing other conditions that might affect public access. On October 1, when the transition happens, the NPS will have an incident management team in place to identify and begin to mitigate public safety issues, debris removal, and public access. NPS anticipates making more inspections and determining what sites can be safely opened to the public, in what order, with the primary goals of re-opening areas that are currently made public by the RUE holder and performing the necessary work to make other areas safe. Once the NPS has determined the areas are safe, guided tours may be offered to showcase the special cultural and natural features of Caneel.
The National Park Service is not providing comment on active litigation.
In the mid-1950s, Laurance Rockefeller established Caneel Bay Resort (Caneel Bay) as an early model of ecotourist luxury accommodations to highlight the natural beauty of St. John with low-impact facilities. Within the boundaries of the resort are culturally significant ruins and archaeological sites that span the time from the archaic period through European colonialism and post-colonial emancipation. Several buildings and landscapes within the resort reference or build up these eras. The resort was operated from the 1950s through 2017, when it closed due to damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
In 1983, the Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc. donated the 150-acre property to the NPS for inclusion within Virgin Islands National Park (the park), subject to a retained use estate (RUE). The RUE allows its operator, currently CBI Acquisitions, LLC (CBIA), to use the property as a resort until September 30, 2023. Use of the area after the expiration of the RUE has been the subject of great interest and concern from the community, the park, and potential operators of the resort.
A plan is needed to address ongoing cultural and natural resource impacts and to integrate the Caneel Bay area into the overall management of Virgin Islands National Park, which includes making the area accessible and welcoming to the local community, guests, and visitors, once the RUE expires in September 2023.
The future of the Caneel Bay area was the subject of a 2013 environmental assessment (EA) released to the public, which focused solely on transitioning the fully operational hotel from the RUE to a noncompetitive lease under the terms described in Public Law 111-261. During the EA process, the NPS identified environmental contamination concerns that needed resolution. The NPS was also evaluating historic structures and a potential historic district. Several of these and other elements of the EA were incomplete, and the NPS never finalized a decision document for the EA. Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed many of the guest accommodations, and the site continues to suffer from the impact of those storms. The data from 2013 is not reflective of the current realities at the Caneel Bay area. The park’s natural resources consist of coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves, and other marine habitats that support sea turtles, corals, and other marine life. Virgin Islands National Park also protects some of the last remaining native tropical dry rain forest in the Caribbean. The park provides vital habitat for approximately 130 bird species, 400 reef-associated fish species, 17 species of whales and dolphins, 13 reptile species, numerous sponges, and more than 45 stony coral species. A number of marine and terrestrial species within the boundaries of the park and monument are federally listed as endangered or threatened.
The park's cultural resources are abundant and diverse, including prehistoric archeological sites, hundreds of historic structures, offshore shipwrecks, and museum collections that encompass artifacts dating as far back as 840 BC. The Virgin Islands have been inhabited for at least 3,000 years, beginning with hunter-gatherers of the Archaic Period. Settlement continued throughout prehistory and ended with the development of the Taino culture, the pre-Columbian people who were present when Columbus explored the New World. When Europeans arrived, the Virgin Islands became a melting pot, inhabited by people from around the world who came to make a new life on the islands. These colonial settlements date from the 17th century through the 19th century. Visitors can explore the ruins of hundreds of historic structures to get a sense of this rich history. Civic engagement is a continuous, dynamic conversation with the public on many levels that reinforces public commitment to preserving heritage resources, both cultural and natural. It strengthens public understanding of the full meaning and contemporary relevance of these resources. The foundation of civic engagement is a commitment to building and sustaining relationships with neighbors and communities of interest.
In April 2021, the NPS met with you, the community at large, to discuss the future of the Caneel Bay area. We asked you the following questions:
NPS closely reviewed and discussed all comments submitted and transcripts from our listening sessions. Although feedback varied, several themes resonated:
There were various ideas presented by the public and from NPS for the appropriate use of the area, which has substantial cultural and ethnographic resources and connections to the community.
An interdisciplinary team of staff from the park, our regional office, and other NPS offices with expertise in sustainable development, community planning, commercial services, environmental engineering, and cultural resources management, among other disciplines, developed a preliminary range of options for the redevelopment of the Caneel Bay area. The NPS then initiated a 45-day comment period on a conceptual range of preliminary alternatives for the future of the Caneel Bay area. The public was encouraged to share your observations, concerns, and ideas about the information presented in the newsletter and during public meetings. The NPS used the information obtained during this civic engagement public comment period to refine the conceptual range of preliminary alternatives, refine issues, and ensure that we have the necessary information to move forward in the planning process. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a law that guides the environmental analysis component of agency planning. This law defines a process that federal agencies must follow when proposing to take actions that have environmental impacts. The NEPA process ensures that information on the environmental impacts of proposed actions is available to public officials and citizens before decisions are made. NEPA requires the use of an “interdisciplinary approach” to ensure that information from a variety of disciplines, including natural and social sciences and cultural resources, is integrated into analysis and decision-making. The NPS developed a range of alternatives that were meaningfully evaluated. Through this process, the NPS released an EA for public review and comment. The NPS then reviewed and responded to substantive comments on the EA before issuing its final decision for the redevelopment of the Caneel Bay area.
No. In July 2021, the NPS announced that it would employ a competitive lease or concessions operation strategy to redevelop the Caneel Bay area at Virgin Islands National Park, subject to a decision made through a NEPA process. The NPS aims to solicit qualified applicants for the long-term partnership needed to successfully redevelop parts of the Caneel Bay area while protecting natural and cultural resources. The Caneel Bay RUE, currently held by CBIA — a unique arrangement crafted by Laurance S. Rockefeller in 1983, setting aside the 150-acre resort for independent operation and management — will remain in place until its expiration on September 30, 2023.
Through this planning process, the NPS determined what visitor services are necessary and/or appropriate for the Caneel Bay area and determined what portions of the site may be leased and what areas could provide concession operations. The NPS leasing program provides a pathway for parks to enter into public-private partnerships to revitalize park properties and make them available for public use. The Caneel Bay competitive process may include Requests for Qualifications (RFQ), which could begin rolling out by this summer, 2023. The NPS may also issue a request for proposals and/or a concession services prospectus once a decision is made on the future of the Caneel Bay area. Regardless of the chosen mechanism, the business opportunities at the Caneel Bay area would be open to the public, and we encourage all interested parties to submit a response. The NPS’s top priority currently is to secure the environmental future of the Caneel Bay area. In the summer of 2021, the NPS released the first round of environmental investigation data, the Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis (EE/CA) Report and hosted public sessions specifically to engage the community. The NPS conducted an additional round of sampling in Fall 2021 to fill some data gaps and completed the full contaminant investigation in the summer of 2022.
The NPS performed an EE/CA investigation for three areas of the resort to assess the nature and extent of contamination, assess risks to human health and the environment, and determine a preferred clean-up alternative. The NPS investigated the Caneel Bay area using its authority under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), and its implementing regulations, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), which govern response actions at sites where hazardous substances present a potential risk to human health or ecological receptors. Under CERCLA, the NPS may seek to recover up to 100% of its response costs from potentially responsible parties (PRPs). More information about the EE/CA including a document list is available at ParkPlanning - Public Involvement for the Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) Site Assessment at Caneel Bay Resort (nps.gov)
Cleaning up the Caneel Bay area is currently in the contracting phase, with the contractor anticipated to start work in Fall 2023 and allows the NPS to plan the future redevelopment free of unacceptable risks to human health or the environment. A clean site enables the NPS to negotiate a fair lease or concessions contract on behalf of the American public. Cleaning up the Caneel Bay area and fulfilling the NEPA planning process are related but separate processes. The Redevelopment and Management NEPA document did not address the environmental contamination or clean-up efforts but instead focused on the future of the Caneel Bay area, presented alternatives and impacts related to redevelopment. The processes for evaluating and awarding leases are outlined in 36 C.F.R. § 18.8. There are additional requirements and determinations within these regulations and the NPS Interior Region 2 Director has been delegated the authority to make these determinations and execute the lease on behalf of the NPS. While the public does not have a formal role in the leasing process, they did play a critical role by providing the NPS their opinion on the scope and scale of the services that could potentially be offered as part of the proposed development of the Caneel Bay area.
The NPS Interior Region Director also is delegated authority to execute concession contracts on behalf of the NPS up to certain revenue and term thresholds. Beyond these thresholds, the NPS Director or the NPS Associate Director of Business Services would execute concession contracts. Key milestones include the determination of necessary and appropriate services, prospectus development, selection of the best offer, and award of the concessions contract. Similar to the leasing process, the public does not have a formal role in the concession contracting process, but they may provide the NPS their opinion on the scope and scale of the services that could be offered as part of the redevelopment of the Caneel Bay area. Public land access to Honeymoon Beach will be a priority for the transition team and a public safety inspection will be performed within days of the transition. Consistent with U.S. Virgin Islands law, the beaches are open to the public. A beach is defined by the NPS as the location along a shoreline where the sediment is in motion, being moved by waves, tides, and currents. The beach is often bounded on the upland side by a cliff, dune, or vegetation. Some debris removal actions might result in short term closures of specific areas for public safety actions or resource recovery such as debris removal. These short-term closures are anticipated to be narrow in area and short in duration, so that usage of portions of the beach can continue while the debris removal and resource restoration takes place.
The VI Territorial Government has a consultation role during this planning process. For example, consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office and the Coastal Zone Management Program in the Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) are ongoing. At the expiration of the RUE, regardless of the alternative selected for implementation, the NPS will assume management responsibilities for the natural and cultural resources at the Caneel Bay area. The NPS will manage natural and cultural resources consistent with the NPS Organic Act of 1916, NPS Management Policies 2006, the park's enabling legislation, and other park planning documents.
The NPS Organic Act of 1916 requires the NPS "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." The NPS's first obligation is to make sure that our decisions do not compromise park resources and the right of future generations to enjoy them.
When considering offering commercial visitor services through a concession contract, within a National Park unit such as Virgin Islands National Park, the NPS is required to ensure that public accommodations, facilities, and services are provided only under carefully controlled safeguards against unregulated and indiscriminate use so that visitation will not unduly impair those resources and values. Development of public accommodations, facilities, and services within Virgin Islands National Park would be limited to locations that are consistent to the highest practicable degree with the preservation and conservation of the resources and values of Virgin Islands National Park (54 USC § 101912).
After a decision is made through this planning effort, if the NPS issues a lease for the facilities at the Caneel Bay area, the NPS is required by law to ensure there will be no degradation of the purposes and values of Virgin Islands National Park (54 USC 102102).
After a decision is made through this planning effort, if the NPS issues a concession contract for necessary and appropriate visitor services at the Caneel Bay area, the NPS will consider the effect on, or need for, additional infrastructure and management of operations and be based on a determination that the facility or service is consistent with the enabling legislation of Virgin Islands National Park, compliments the park’s mission and visitor service objectives, incorporates sustainable principles and practices, and will not cause unacceptable impacts to natural and cultural resources. We encourage everyone to visit the following website:https://parkplanning.nps.gov/CaneelBayRedevelopment.
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Last updated: August 3, 2023