JEK
Senior Insider
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At the territorial council meeting on November 5, elected officials confirmed their desire to initiate apprehension procedures in order to incorporate all the islets into the domain of the Collectivity. However, some are privately owned and should be the subject of research and possible negotiation.
As opposition politician Maxime Desouches put it, this is "normal administrative procedure". Nevertheless, the approach taken by the Community is not trivial since it indicates a desire to reappropriate property designated as "vacant" by the tax administration. In this case, all the islets located in the inland waters of Saint-Barthélemy.
Thirteen ilets acquired, seven to recover
Since Saint-Barth obtained the status of Collectivity, the state-owned situation of thirteen islets has remained undefined. A “reconnaissance mission” was therefore initiated in 2017 by the services of the prefecture. This enabled the characteristics of these islands to be established with precision. In 2019, the Collectivity asked the Regional Directorate of Public Finance (DRFIP) of Guadeloupe to find out
The state-owned status of these thirteen islets, which are: Boulanger, Pelé, La Poule et les Poussins, Roche Table, Fourmis, Les Grénadiers, Coco, Roches Rouges, Pain de Sucre, Les Islettes, Les Saintes, L 'Âne Rouge and Pointe Petit-Jean Island. No potential owner has come forward within six months of the publication of a presumption of assets, which allowed the Collectivity to recover the plots concerned.
The president of the Territorial Collectivity, Bruno Magras, stresses that this is only a first step in the acquisition process undertaken by the Collectivity. Mainly due to the fact that several islands are privately owned. “While a certain number of ilets around the island are privately owned, that does not preclude researching who the different owners are,” explains the president. Because it would be interesting for all of these islands to enter the heritage
The Territorial Collectivity wishes to incorporate into its domain all the islets located in its internal waters such as, here, Fourchue.
monk of the Collectivity. We have already recovered and it has been a work of several years. "
Estate value estimated at 201,800 euros
At this time, seven islets do not fall under possible apprehension. These are Fourchue, la Tortue, Ilet au Vent, Petite Islette, Frégate, Ile Chevreau (or Bonhomme) and Toc-Vers.
For the latter, to the surprise of Bruno Magras. “We have strangely discovered that Knock-Vers belongs to people,” he remarks. We are doing research on that. At the time, perhaps the technique was to put kids on an islet and then consider that you were the owner. I don't know, I wasn't there to see. For the others, such as Bonhomme, Fourchue or Fréggate, the owner families are known to the Collectivity but must be contacted.
The patrimonial value of the islets which can be apprehended by the Collectivity has been established by the Domains. To do this, given the fact that all the plots concerned are classified as a natural and protected zone, the organization has adopted the value of the square meter of natural soil in Saint-Martin, which is 1.10 euros. . Therefore, for all the islands, the estimated amount is 201,800 euros.
