Alter City Group, which plans to build a $1.2-billion casino project on Tinian, has expressed its opposition to the planned military expansion on the island and its effects on the rest of the CNMI.<\/p>\n
In a nine-page public comment submitted to the U.S. military, ACG stated that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the CNMI Joint Military Training is \u201cinappropriate, ill-conceived, and impermissible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe DEIS is not in the best interest of Tinian and the CNMI and will adversely affect the economic development of Tinian inclusive of ACG\u2019s substantial investment to build its hotel and resort facilities on the island adjacent to the area to be used by the military,\u201d the document, signed by ACG managing director Ken Lin, said.<\/p>\n
Alter City said it will not only protect its investment but will also protect the people of Tinian and their cultural and economic resources \u201cfrom a military intent on running roughshod over these concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cACG is prepared to take whatever legal action necessary, in the form of a cause of action for tortuous interference of contract, injunctive relief, and otherwise, to protect its agreement and its promises for Tinian,\u201d their statement said.<\/p>\n
Concerns on transportation, sites<\/strong> ACG said that allowing the military\u2019s plans\u2014as outlined in the DEIS\u2014would make transportation, which is already a challenge now, more difficult for Tinian\u2019s residents and visitors. Flights and ferries, which ACG plans to provide, will be required to travel outside restricted airspace and areas, resulting in delays as well as increased fuel consumption.<\/p>\n The group is also concerned about the noise that the military will generate during activities such as construction, live-fire and other training. ACG pointed out that their development is located right next to the military leased area and in between the military leased area and San Jose, which will make noise much more perceptible to their upcoming Plumeria Resort.<\/p>\n ACG also noted that the military\u2019s would-be restrictions to significant historical and recreational sites such as the Shinto Shrine, Hinode American Memorial, Tinian Grotto, and Fleming Point is damaging to the purpose of their development.<\/p>\n \u2018Biggest concerns\u2019<\/strong> \u201cEither the military did not know the property is already leased to ACG or it knew and callously disregarded ACG\u2019s property rights,\u201d it stated. \u201cACG vehemently opposes this proposed taking and is fully prepared to take legal action in opposition if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n The Macau-based company also pointed out that the military might have an effect with regards to the visa waiver program.<\/p>\n \u201cACG\u2019s biggest concern is, through this investment over the next few years, what guarantees or assurances do we have that our biggest tourism base (China) will not be restricted from entering Tinian or the CNMI due to the visa waiver program being altered to protect the military actions?\u201d their statement said.<\/p>\n \u2018Military wasteland\u2019<\/strong> ACG concluded that it is opposed to all three Tinian alternatives. And questioned the appropriateness of Tinian to be turned into a location for what they called \u201cdestructive military training.\u201d<\/p>\n It pointed out that the \u201cDEIS is a direct and immediate threat to the economic development and prosperity of Tinian\u201d and, while the benefits from the DEIS are minimal, the \u201cburdens are significant and unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alter City Group, which plans to build a $1.2-billion casino project on Tinian, has expressed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6152,26,2272,200],"class_list":["post-207064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-acg","tag-cnmi","tag-deis","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTheir comment on the U.S. military\u2019s proposed live-fire and explosive ordnance training highlighted concerns on transportation, noise pollution, vegetation destruction, recreational restriction, cultural resource destruction\/restriction, and the fuel pipeline through their leased property.<\/p>\n
\nOne part of the draft EIS that ACG \u201cvehemently opposes\u201d is the military\u2019s proposed construction of an underground fuel pipeline to run through their leased property.<\/p>\n
\nAccording to the company, DEIS will turn Tinian into a \u201cmilitary wasteland devoid of all of its attractions and scenery\u201d and will result the failure of Tinian\u2019s socioeconomic, environmental, ecological, and cultural structure.<\/p>\n