“I support the position of the delegation in which there have been so many negative feedback from the local business community since the implementation of the 2008 Saipan Zoning Law in December of 2008,” Tudela wrote on his July 22 letter to the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation that Rep. Ramon A. Tebuteb, R-Saipan, chairs.
House Local Bill No. 16-39 which seeks suspension of the Saipan zoning law was introduced by Rep. Stanley T. Torres on June 25.
Torres, R-Saipan, said he introduced the bill because the “unintended effects have proven to be detrimental to local business and thus, the Commonwealth in general.”
The Commonwealth Zoning Board has until Sept. 30 to force the relocation of certain business establishments to the so-called Adult Entertainment District.
But landowners within the proposed Middle Road Adult Overlay Zone refused to lease lands to potential investors.
“I am aware of the negative responses from the community because I was also informed by the individuals and members of the business community about numerous issues that perhaps were not properly addressed or were not heard from a series of public hearings, media coverage, and press releases,” Tudela further said in his letter.
Zoning Board Administrator Victor Barrett has expressed some reservations on the proposed stay of the zoning code, saying: “It would be a waste for the community and send investors the wrong message to throw out the whole zoning code yet again.”
“There are no unintended effects, as the bill contends, but we have experienced the inevitable growing pains that developing a zoning code for an island community that has been without any formal land planning for over 3,000 years would naturally bring. We should not squander this hard won insight and the opportunity to build a better code,” said Barrett in a statement.
“Suspending the law at this point would be unfair to the hundreds of businesses that have followed the code and to the businesses planning new projects under the current law. I fear that any suspension of the law will halt what little planned development we do have dead in its tracks, and allow opportunist and indiscriminate uses to take root once again. This will further devalue our built environment. The last thing any serious real estate investor wants is the uncertainty created by not having effective zoning,” Barrett went on to explain.
