In the Virgin Islands, as is the case with most jurisdictions, before an appeal can be filed in court a appelant must exhaust administrative remedies. In the case of a CZM Permit decision this means filing an appeal with the Virgin Islands Board of Land Use Appeals, also known as “BLUA.”
In order to be eligible to file a BLUA appeal a person must either be (a) the applicant, or (b) someone who submitted testimony during the Public Hearing. Although a large number of individuals submitted testimony, there were only a small handful of organizations who testified in opposition to the permits. Among those was the “Virgin Islands Conservation Society” (VICS) who submitted a brief letter in opposition.
Shortly following the CZM Decision Meeting, a group of highly motivated Coral Bay residents, together with the Coral Bay Community Council (“CBCC”), met to strategize next steps. CBCC was reluctant to become involved in legal appeals and lawsuits and while supportive of the goals, did not want to be a principal player in the legal opposition.
The Virgin Islands Conservation Society had a long history of environmental advocacy, and was ready, willing, and anxious to help in the efforts to overturn the CZM permits and protect the fragile environmental resources of Coral Bay. Our loosely knit, grassroots coalition formed an informal cooperative arrangement with VICS whereby we would raise funds for legal expenses, and VICS would apply their expertise in Virgin Islands conservation law, and together we would appeal the CZM permits.
At the same time, and independent of our efforts, the Moravian Conference had extreme misgivings about the CZM process and the sufficiency of the CZM permit applications. They were deeply concerned about “littoral rights” – their rights under common law to use the waters offshore of their shoreline property. The Moravian Conference felt that the SEG project severely inhibited the Moravian’s plan for their own marina, and accordingly filed their own appeal with the Board of Land Use Appeals.
By the end of November 2014, two appeals had been filed with BLUA. And although the CZM permits had immediately been signed by Governor DeJongh, in order for them to become effective the Major Water Permit needed to be ratified by the Virgin Islands Legislature. Chaliese Summers and SEG’s legal team pressured Senate President Shawn Malone, but he had received legal advice that the permits should not be acted on until the BLUA appeals were resolved.
As a consequence, at the end of 2014 the Summers End Group had two CZM permits, one of which had not been fully approved. Neither permit could be used because of the pending BLUA appeals. And there was soon to be a new Governor – Kenneth Mapp – who did not approve of the project.
