“I think it would be wise at this point to suspend the project while we allow the agencies to review what’s wrong in this process,” she said in an interview on Friday.
Sablan earlier asked the Coastal Resources Management Office to stop the land clearing for the 62 acres of public lands in Marpi because there was no siting permit secured for the job and no public hearing was conducted for the proposed homestead village there.
Dr. John Joyner, CRMO director, told the Variety there was nothing to suspend because there was no land clearing project being done at the site.
He said their staffers visited the site and did not find any land clearing activities.
Further, Joyner said the land is still riddled with World War II ordnance making it impossible to construct a homestead village.
He said the American forces used the site as a major dumpsite for munitions and so far only about 70 percent of them have been recovered and detonated.
Some citizens have expressed concern about the project because the site is home to four threatened species — the Mariana swiftlet, the Mariana fruit bat, the nightingale reed-warbler and the Micronesia megapode.
The federal government granted the CNMI a Brownfield grant to clear the area of unexploded ordnance.
The grant went to the Department of Public Lands, the agency tasked to oversee and develop public lands and homestead projects in the CNMI.
“You can’t separate the Brownfield project from the goal which is homestead development. And even though there have been assurances of some kind from Public Lands and the administration, what’s in black and white still reflects homestead development,” said Sablan, Ind.-Saipan.
She said the site was originally proposed to be developed as an agricultural homestead.
By law, a public hearing should be held if it involves a major government project like the Marpi village homestead.
But to date, Sablan said not a single formal public hearing about it has been held.
She said this and questions about the permitting process have resulted in public outcry and confusion.
(With Zaldy Dandan)
