by Larry Smith
After 40 years, there are signs that the Montagu shoreline could be in for some big improvements. But don't bet on it - the area has a long history of missed opportunities.
A parliamentary committee reported last week after a two-year study. And consultants working on the redevelopment of Nassau have also published their two-year-old recommendations for the Montagu area.
The two proposals conflict with each other. And there is no allocation in the current budget to implement the suggested changes anyway.
Once a fashionable resort, the Montagu today is a crowded recreational site for joggers, inner-city families, cookout vendors, sailing enthusiasts and boaters. But years of neglect and lack of planning have led to huge envronmental management problems.
The beach has all but disappeared due to man-made erosion. The complex intersection is a monstrous safety hazard, And there is a growing public health threat from pollution caused by garbage, fish waste, sewerage and storm water discharges.
Despite periodic improvements by private sector groups, the narrow park along the shore is strewn with trash. The crumbling ramp is jammed with fishermen, small boats and jet ski operators. And daily traffic jams rile the tempers of thousands of commuters.
The venerable Montagu Beach Hotel closed in 1973 and was demolished in 1993. The land remained vacant for years, and could easily have been acquired by the government for a public park - but that never happened. So today, high-rise office blocks hem the joggers and picknickers into a narrow strip along the shore.
In the early 1990’s architect Jackson Burnside proposed diverting Bay Street to expand the park and remove the sea wall and road that had destroyed the beach dunes.
“The Ministry of Works drew up some schemes that never went anywhere,” Burnside told Tough Call. “No engineering studies were ever done to my knowledge."
The 1960s-vintage ramp was never meant to accommodate commercial traffic or a public market. But after an outbreak of food poisoning at Potter's Cay in 1991, many fish vendors moved to Montagu - and never looked back.
According to the House select committee's report, although the market was declared illegal in 1995, the congested ramp is now a source of livelihood for at least 30 families. And as a result it poses health, traffic, property value and other growth-related problems.
"Boats are launched there; fish are cleaned and sold there; tee shirts are sold there; and fruit stalls have sprung up. The commercial area has expanded and in a few years the eastern foreshore will be illegally commercial," the report said, pointing to the lack of toilet and waste disposal facilities in a popular recreational area.
To address the problems, the government would have to install considerable new infrastructure. But the committee concluded that the area was too small to justify such an investment.
Moving the ramp to the area between the fort and the Nassau Yacht Club was vetoed because of the traffic dangers it would create for children playing in the park. Fishermen also objected because of the difficulty of launching their boats in the swift current.
The foreshore east of the Royal Nassau Sailing Club was also considered: "Traditionally, this has been zoned as a residential area," the committee said. "On the other side of the street is high-priced real estate (and) putting a commercial venture there would unnecessarily devalue the real estate. It is not good policy for a government to do this."
So the parliamentarians decided that the best solution was for the vendors to be relocated to four acres of vacant government land at Malcolm's Park between the Paradise Island entry bridge and the old Pan Am seaplane terminal. Many private investors have sought to lease this strategic property over the years, but it remains nothing more than an unsightly boat boneyard in full view of arriving Atlantis guests.
"This area is centrally located and able to accommodate both the Potter's Cay fishermen and those from the Montagu ramp. It is well off the road and has the potential to attract tourist from Paradise Island," the committee said.
However, to avoid the traffic problems caused by boat trailers travelling to the Malcolm's Park site from the eastern district, the committee concluded that the Montagu ramp should remain where it is, but be closed off from the sale of fish and other products. Access would be reconfigured to prevent trailers from blocking the main road.
This plan is made simpler by the sea wall now under construction that has reclaimed extra space between the ramp and the old hotel dock. This refurbished area would become a parking and turning apron for vehicles and trailers. And the ramp will be extended outward another 100 feet.
As for the relocated fish market, this is similar to what Jackson Burnside proposed in his 1993 waterfront study that the government never acted on. Burnside said the Malcolm's Park site should be turned into a "festival marketplace" for fish, vegetable, arts and craft vendors similar to the one he designed for the Prince George Wharf.
But the government's US-based urban planners, EDAW, in their Historic Nassau study called for a park, community centre and botanical gardens at the Malcolm's Park site. All market activities would be moved to Potter's Cay, which would be transformed into an attraction similar to the Arawak Cay Fish Fry. How this could be implemented in competition with the already congested freight, fishing and ferry boat operations was not explained.
The EDAW study called for a variety of landscape and traffic improvements to the Montagu district, including a reconfiguration of the park surrounding the fort. Beaches to the west and south of the fort would be restored, and a waterfront promenade would connect the fort to a new restaurant by the hotel dock.
EDAW, however, wanted to keep the fish market in the area between the ramp and the old hotel dock, with reorganized parking and better access: "The restaurant is moved to a waterfront area closer to the fish vendors, and new food vending areas are created. Picnic areas are added adjacent to the beach. Space for temporary regatta stalls are also provided.
"About 10,000 square feet of retail is proposed, including the reconstruction of the existing fish vendor booths. The project also redesigns about 5.5 acres of park lands and about 1.3 acres of parking. The result of these small projects is a unified and expanded park with a greater variety of attractions."
This dichotomy between the select committee's recommendations and the Historic Nassau study is one of the reasons Montagu MP Brent Symonette refused to sign the House report. Instead, Symonette gave a "verbal minority report", arguing for facilities to accommodate fish vendors at the existing site - but off the ramp.
"If improvements were made at the Johnson Road, Fox Hill Road and Blair intersections with Bay Street a lot of the traffic problems now blamed on the ramp could be resolved," he told Tough Call. "I did not agree to moving the fish vendors, and the EDAW study has allocated Malcolm's Park for a different use."
Although Pierre Dupuch, the independent MP who chaired the House committee, said he will meet with government officials soon to discuss next steps, Symonette says it is unlikely that anything will happen in the short-term.
So here we are, 33 years after the Montagu Beach Hotel closed, 13 years after Bahamian experts outlined a comprehensive waterfront plan, two years after foreign consultants made similar proposals, and one week after the House committee report.
Will anything actually happen?
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