By October 2024 the writing was on the wall for the Summers End Group.  The new Army Corps reviewer – Ms. Alisa Zarbo – was familiar with the project since she had been the assigned reviewer several years earlier.  As Ms. Zarbo reviewed the status of the permit review and the documents in the record, she began to ask questions.

Similarly, here in the Virgin Islands, in November 2024 the Legislature’s Committee on Economic Development, headed by Senator Javan James, met to receive an update from the Summers End Group.  At that hearing Ms. Summers and her legal team claimed that:

• there was a “settlement agreement” with the Clendinen family, and
• the letter of objection from the EPA was not relevant, and
• the National Marine Fisheries Service had “degraded” the Endangered Species Act consultation from “formal” to “informal”, and
• that the Army Corps was in the process of drafting the final approved permit.

None of this was true.  The so-called “settlement agreement” had been rejected by the Clendinen family.  The EPA was standing on its prior position that the project’s impacts on an Aquatic Resource of National Importance were extensive and the permit should be denied.  And although NMFS had received the Corps request to downgrade ESA consultation to “informal” they had not concurred with that request.

DPNR had been invited to testify before the Committee, so, on November 10, prior to the hearing, CZM Director Marlon Hibbert wrote to the Army Corps and enquired about the status of the federal permit.  He wrote:

In response, on November 13, the new reviewer (Ms. Alisa Zarbo) wrote:

Director Hibbert,
The Corps is still evaluating the project. The applicant provided some minimization of the docking structure and has proposed some compensatory mitigation consisting of mangrove plantings and debris clean-up in the Bay. We have not yet completed consultation with the agencies. I am meeting with the agencies (NMFS PRD, NMFS HCD, and EPA) on a weekly basis, and we are going through their avoidance and minimization efforts and considering their compensatory mitigation plan. We are also reviewing their monitoring plan as well.
I also have a question for you. The CZM permit that we have is several years old. Is it still valid? I didn’t know if it would expire after a certain length of time. Let me know if you would like to discuss and I will be happy to call you.
– Alisa

And that question asked by the Army Corps, by Ms. Alisa Zarbo, opened up a sequence of email exchanges with CZM Director Hibbert which ultimately demonstrated that not only did Summers End Group NOT have a valid CZM permit, but it had expired over three years previously and was now null and void.

As I said, by late 2024, the writing was on the wall …