CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands — Residents of St Thomas objected at a public hearing on 29 December 2025 to a proposal to rezone residential land above Frenchman’s Reef for temporary housing for about 450 off-island construction workers, the St Thomas Source reported.
The applicant, Sweetgrass Valley Properties LLC, owned by Todd Donahue, is asking to change land in Estate Bakkeroe from R-1 (low-density residential) to R-3 (medium-density multifamily). The plan calls for about 15 modular buildings of roughly 30 rooms each and 257 parking spaces, to house workers on disaster-recovery projects.
Residents raised concerns about traffic, stormwater runoff on the steep hillside, round-the-clock noise, and the risk that the higher-density zoning would remain after the workers left and later allow condominium development. Staff from the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, including floodplain manager Ellerton Maynard, attended. Written comments were open until 9 January 2026.
What it means
Analysis: Rebuilding programmes across the Caribbean need large numbers of imported workers, and they have to live somewhere. Rezoning is the fastest route, but a permanent change in zoning can outlast the need and alter neighbourhood character and values, which is why residents are pressing for limits.
Editor’s note: This article was added to the Jamaica Homes News archive on 30 September 2026. It reports events from December 2025 and is dated to when they were reported.
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