Kick-Off: Community Facilities Planning Project

Dear Government and Nonprofit Agency Hurricane Recovery Partners,

We are all doing our part to help the Virgin Islands recover well.  The Coral Bay Community Council (CBCC) is starting a planning project, with a $150,000 USDA Community Facilities-Disaster Recovery grant, and at least $40,000 in community in-kind matching funding. CBCC applied for this grant after the 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria left Coral Bay with no public meeting spaces or functional government facilities of any kind, not even a working fire station.

What types of community services and public facilities are needed in Coral Bay, St. John?

We invite you to send representatives to these community meetings below – to hear what residents are interested in, and to ask questions or provide any comments yourselves. CBCC wants to make the discussion fully inclusive, and will add other methods, including surveys and small group meetings as appropriate to engage as many people as possible in shaping the actual facilities that are built. 

The Kickoff meeting to discuss Community Facility concepts is on Wednesday, April 17^th from 3:30 to 4:30 PM in the backyard at Pickles in Paradise, in Coral Bay, St. John, since Coral Bay currently has no available public facility for a large group meeting.  We hope many people take the time to come – parents with children, workers, retirees and others.  

A second opportunity to discuss ideas is on Monday, April 22^nd from 1 to 5 PM at our Open House event at the CBCC office. You are invited to drop by any time between 1 and 5 PM. Light refreshments will be provided. This is Easter Monday, a holiday for government workers and some others, so we hope that many people can come by and share your ideas for children’s programs, adult programs, recreation, emergency and government services, meeting places, public amenities, teen centers, and more. 

During these meetings, CBCC will listen to people’s ideas about the types of services and multi-use facilities that will improve the quality of life for St. John residents. Although these facilities are intended to be located in Coral Bay, they will be available to serve everyone.

Read the Press Release here  for additional information about this project which will continue through 2019.  We have already met personally with some of you and alerted you to the project and these upcoming meetings.  We welcome and encourage you to come yourself, or send a representative to these community meetings.

This initial phase of this Community Facilities Planning Project will result in 3 to 5 concepts that will be further discussed with the community in the next few months, and includes developing feasible operations and management models. In the second phase, preliminary designs and permit application studies will be prepared for two of these concepts. The design process will involve local professionals, such as planners, architects, engineers, lawyers, surveyors, archaeologists and biologists. CBCC will research and apply for grant opportunities for capital funding to develop the facilities on behalf of the future operator of each facility. These actual new community facilities may be owned and run by the VI government, other nonprofit organizations or CBCC. This should be very helpful for potential CDBG-DR projects, as well as other funding sources.

For more information or to provide comments and ideas, please call CBCC at 340-776-2099 and ask for Sharon Coldren or Rachel McKinley, or send ideas by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..