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MPLA pushes for zoning in homestead areas
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Posted on Feb 09 2005
Citing its lack of power to the control the use of homestead property after a quitclaim deed is issued to the owner, the Marianas Public Lands Authority is pushing for legislation to implement zoning in homestead subdivisions.
MPLA chair Ana Demapan-Castro has instructed the agency’s legal counsel to lobby for the enactment of a law restricting the construction and operation of certain commercial activities in homestead subdivisions.
Demapan-Castro expressed concern about the proliferation of commercial businesses such as auto shops, poker parlors, and other nonresidential land use activities.
“These nonresidential land uses not only pose safety and health hazards to the residents of these areas, they also attract criminal elements and other social ills,” she said. “For this reason, the MPLA board feels that in order to combat this existing residential nuisance, lobbying for statutory restrictions on certain commercial activities and adopting related policies may be the board’s best option.”
The homesteader determines how to use a property after the three-year homesteading period expires and a quitclaim deed is issued.
Further, once homestead properties are private, there is little the MPLA can do in terms of restricting any form of commercial activities in the area.
“Existing and future commercial activities can be relocated or designated to the outskirts or at certain locations away from these residential dwellings,” Demapan-Castro maintained.
Homestead subdivisions are located in Kagman, As Matuis, Dandan, Lower Navy Hill, Koblerville, Capitol Hill, and Tanapag, among other villages.
