Administration
(a) This subchapter and chapters 5 and 7 of Title 6, Virgin Islands Code, shall be administered and enforced by a Zoning Administrator who shall be the Commissioner of Planning and Natural Resources. The Commissioner of Planning and Natural Resources shall appoint Assistant Zoning Administrator(s) who shall have had experience in dealing with Zoning Laws, and may designate the Assistant Zoning Administrator(s) in writing, to act on his behalf.
The Zoning Administrator is authorized to take an appeal from any decision of the Board of Land Use Appeals when his decision has been overruled by said Board. The Commissioner of Conservation and Cultural Affairs shall be the Zoning Administrator in connection with any development for which a coastal zone permit is required under Title 12, chapter 21 of this Code (the Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Act of 1978). The Zoning Administrator shall maintain permanent and current records relative to adoption and chapters 5 and 7 of Title 6, Virgin Islands Code, amendment, administration and enforcement of the zoning regulations, including but not limited to all zoning maps, plans, applications, planned developments, conditional uses, variances, appeals and disposition thereof, and shall provide an information service for the public on all matters relating to zoning in the Virgin Islands. It shall be the duty of the Zoning Administrator to examine all applications for building or other permits for the use of land and to determine that the application and plan submitted conforms to all provisions of this subchapter, as provided and set forth in subsection (c) of section 235 of this subchapter prior to the issuance of any building or other permit. It shall be the duty of the Zoning Administrator to make recommendations to the Planning Office and the Legislature of the Virgin Islands with respect to changes which he deems desirable in the law in order that it may prove a more effective instrument in helping to achieve the General Development Plan of the Virgin Islands.Enforcement
(b) The Zoning Administrator and employees of his department as he may designate may cause any building, structure, place or premises to be inspected and examined and to order, in writing, the remedying of any condition found to exist therein or thereat in violation of any provision or regulation of this subchapter.
Any official having jurisdiction, in addition to other remedies, may institute an action or proceeding to prevent the unlawful erection, construction, alteration, conversion, maintenance or use of a building; or to restrain, correct or abate such violation; or to prevent the occupation of buildings, structures or land; or to prevent any illegal act, conduct, business or use in or about such premises.Application for building or other permits for use of land
(c) All applications for building or other permits for use of land, including building permits for the planting of a tree as defined in chapters 5 and 7 of Title 6, Virgin Islands Code, if such permit is required by either of said chapters, shall contain at least the following information, unless any specific required information is waived by the Zoning Administrator as not relevant or necessary to determine that all provisions of this subchapter have been met:
A site plan of the property, in duplicate, to a scale not to exceed twenty (20) feet to one (1) inch, prepared by a registered engineer, architect or land surveyor, or a draftsman pursuant to the authority of such draftsman under 27 V.I.C. § 291(8), illustrating the proposed development of the property and including the following:
1. Topographical features showing present grades and any proposed grades if present grades are to be altered. When required by the Zoning Administrator, contours not greater than five (5) feet shall be shown;
2. Property boundary lines and dimensions including any distinguishing platted lot lines within the property;
3. Location and dimensions of buildings, including height in stories and feet and including total square feet of ground area coverage of all existing and proposed buildings;
4. Location and dimensions of all driveways and entrances and minimum yard dimensions and, where relevant, relation of yard dimensions to the height of any side of a building or structure;
5. Location and dimensions of parking stalls, access aisles, and total area of lot coverage of all parking areas and driveways;
6. Location and dimensions, including height clearance, of all off-street loading areas;
7. Location, designation and total area of all usable open space, including use of any paved areas as distinguished from sodded or other landscaped areas;
8. Location and height of fences, walls including retaining walls, or screen planting, and the type or kind of building materials or planting used;
9. Proposed surface drainage;
10. Location of easements or other rights-of-way;
11. Location and designation of any open storage space;
12. The use of existing and proposed buildings, including the number of dwelling units in any building and the number of bedrooms in each dwelling unit in any building occupied or proposed to be occupied by more than two (2) dwelling or apartment units. This shall be supplemented by a summary schedule of all existing or proposed dwelling types set forth in the Table of Density Regulations of this subchapter;
13. In residential buildings, any existing or proposed commercial accessory uses as permitted by this subchapter shall be located and designated;
14. The total floor area in any commercial or mixed commercial-residential building which is governed by this subchapter by a floor area ratio (F.A.R.) factor. If a mixed commercial-residential occupancy, the location and total floor area of any commercial part of the building governed by a floor area ratio shall be shown;
15. Any information pertaining to a use conditionally permitted, where necessary to determine that the conditions for that use are met, or any information necessary to determine that the amount of off-street parking required by this subchapter is met.
16. In the case of a building permit required by chapter 5 or 7 of Title 6, Virgin Islands Code, the additional information required by said chapters.
1. All streets, alleys or other public rights-of-way, public parks and places and all lots and lot lines, streams, guts, waterways and easements;
2. All structures and the principal use of each structure, including the kind of residential, business, commercial, industrial or waterfront use;
3. All parking areas as may be significant to the application in question.
Any other information as may be required by the Zoning Administrator to determine that the application is in compliance with this subchapter shall be furnished upon demand, including but not limited to flood plans, elevations, profiles, perspectives or any other material necessary to a complete understanding of this application.
A statement in writing signed by the applicant stating that the information as shown on said plans is true and correct. Any failure to comply with the provisions of this subchapter shall be good cause to refuse the issuance of any permit and/or to revoke any permit which may have been issued for any building or use of land.
Any application properly submitted under this section shall be acted upon by the Zoning Administrator within sixty (60) days.
Certificates of occupancy
(d) A copy of an application for a building permit in any of the zones defined in chapters 5 and 7 of Title 6, Virgin Islands Code, shall be submitted to the Virgin Islands Port Authority at the same time it is submitted to the Zoning Administrator provided such zone is one to which the building permit provisions of either of said chapters applies.
(e) No land shall be occupied or used and no building hereafter erected or altered shall be occupied or used in whole or in part for any purpose whatsoever until a Certificate of Occupancy has been issued by the Zoning Administrator, stating that the premises or building complies with all provisions of this subchapter; except that where the alteration does not require the vacating of the premises or where parts of the premises are finished and ready for occupancy before the completion of the alteration, or in the case of a new structure, before its completion, a conditional certificate of occupancy may be issued.
No change or extension of use and no alteration shall be made in a nonconforming use of a building or land without a Certificate of Occupancy having first been issued by the Zoning Administrator that such change, extension or alteration is in conformity with the provisions of this subchapter and as provided by subsection (c) of section 234. Application for a Certificate of Occupancy may be made at the time application is made for a building permit or other permit for use of land. A certificate of occupancy shall be issued within ten (10) days after the erection or alteration of a building is completed if determined to be in conformity with the provisions of this subchapter.