fp Turks and Caicos

The newly published Crown Land Policy takes oversight of land grants from elected ministers and puts that process under the attorney general’s office.

Only Turks and Caicos Islanders who have never received Crown land will be allowed to apply for land, and conditional purchase leases will be replaced by direct allocation of long leasehold or straight to freehold title.

Granting of non-commercial land was suspended in April 2009 by then Premier Galmo Williams, and more than 6,000 applications are pending. All those will have to be resubmitted later this year when the new application process is in place.

Effective July 14, the policy was first published Sept. 28 on the governor’s website (turksandcaicosislands.fco.gov.uk), but it still requires an associated Crown Land Ordinance to legislate the provisions of the policy.

A first draft of that ordinance is expected to be available for discussion by the Advisory Council and Consultative Forum in early January, according to a statement by His Excellency the Gov. Ric Todd.

At a meeting in January, the forum objected to many of the provisions now included in the policy, especially taking oversight of land grants away from elected ministers.

Under the Crown land policy enacted in 2005, the former government gave huge discounts on Crown land worth billions of dollars to individuals and developers, making little money for government and leaving only about 25 percent of all developable land for Turks and Caicos Islanders today.

The former government also made numerous allocations of Crown land within the country’s national parks and reserves where development is forbidden by law.

“No one should take for granted that if there were those in the past that were crooks, dishonest … (that) everybody that follows is of the same mind and mentality,” forum member Dr. Linda Williams told adviser Jon Llewellyn in January. “And the way we are trying to regulate, legislate seem to be saying in these documents, ‘I don’t trust you enough to manage your affairs in an honest and upright manner.’

“That is disrespectful, and it is something that really disturbs me because it is a reflection on the Turks and Caicos people generally, not a few persons that got themselves and the country into trouble.”

The People’s Democratic Movement issued a statement Sept. 29 saying that putting land management departments under the attorney general was “inappropriate and we will challenge this, together with the decision to eliminate conditional purchase leases in favour of outright freehold and long leases without saying what this latter option entails.”

The new policy says Crown land grants for residences that had averaged a half acre would be reduced to less than a quarter of an acre, increasing housing densities. It also vows to preserve Crown land and protected areas such as national parks, and to vigorously challenge illegal settlement and harmful actions against Crown land.

Crown land also can be used for government offices, social and emergency housing, recreation and tourism promotion, but the policy restricts granting Crown land to developers to prevent land banking and speculation in favor of viable projects.

A Crown Land Advisory Panel will provide qualified stakeholder oversight of Crown Land Unit activity and future policy amendments.

While the PDM statement said the new policy is a step in the right direction, the party vowed to create a different policy if it wins the next election:

• Crown land must be used to facilitate hotel and other commercial developments that create jobs for Turks and Caicos Islanders and will diversify the economy into transportation, agriculture and services.
• A new government corporation will need to be established to hold equity and debt into these new enterprises.
• The income generated from this activity on Crown land will be segregated from the consolidated fund and into a Crown land fund and properly managed for the long-term benefit of the country by a body that operates independently from the government.
• No use of Crown land proceeds will go for recurrent or one-off capital projects, except in circumstances of dire national emergencies such as natural disasters.

Click here to read the new Crown Land Policy

Click here to read the government’s press release on the new Crown Land Policy

Click here to read the PDM’s statement

Click here to read the 2005 policy