ACG wants to return land, build easement road for military

Alter City Group met with representatives from the military and the Department of Public Lands to discuss various concerns last Wednesday.

While ACG declined to comment on the result of the meeting, it has earlier shared with Saipan Tribune several concerns that they said they needed to discuss with the military with regards to their project site on Tinian, the Puntan Diablo Cove, which sits right next to the military’s land and along the road that the military currently uses for transportation.

According to ACG managing director Ken Lin, they will share information with the military regarding their development plans.

“I think they wanted to see what’s our plan and we’re willing to share to them,” Lin said, “Hopefully we can work with them in a proper way.”

ACG chief executive officer Edvon Sze said one matter that they would have to talk about was regarding a portion of their leased land that they need to return because it belongs to the military.

“We need to return portion of our land,” Sze said.

“It was a mistake that time…and they thought this is part of their land that belongs to DPL. That’s why they leased the whole Puntan Diablo to us,” Sze said.

It wasn’t until later on that they found out that the land belongs to the military, Sze said.

The portion on the land sits at the northern site of ACG’s property and is 6,000 square meters.

According to Lin, it is not an issue if the area belongs to the military. He added that though there were nice pocket beaches there, they cannot build on that area of the property because the land is too narrow and it’s near the airport pathway.

An option will be for DPL to give ACG another parcel of land or deduct it from their fee.

“We would like to, of course since its military land, we will give back to DPL, and DPL will give it back to the military,” Sze said.

Another matter for ACG is the military’s use of Eighth Avenue, which snakes right in the middle of their property.

To solve this, ACG said it has built an easement road that goes along the side of their property instead, but still within their land.

“Our site is right adjacent with the military site. I know there will be some sort of service providing through our site area so that’s why we created an easement road special for the military to go to where they can use,” Lin said.

Lin said they will present the idea about this easement road to the military.

“[We need to do this] in order for us to continue our project. If we allow them to go in, this project will not be successful,” Lin said.