After the Army Corps notified SEG on Jan 6, 2023, that their permit application was deactivated due to an incomplete response, Chaliese Summers sent a lengthy letter to the Corps complaining about the deactivation and citing the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of work that SEG had done in response to the RAI.
The following day the Corps replied to SEG in a short response saying that the application would be reactivated after all materials had been received, reviewed, and deemed complete.
From: Chaliese Summers
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2023 10 47 AM
To: Gonzalez, Alberto CIV USARMY CESAJ (USA)
Cc: Burns, Samantha L CIV USARMY CESAJ (USA)
Kaynor, Susan R CIV USARMY CESAJ (USA)
Subject: Re Summers End – responses
Good morning Alberto,
The applicant submitted a timely response to the September 21, 2022 RAI (RAI) on January 6, 2023.
The RAI required the applicant to submit the response within 60 days and the Corps extended that time frame to January 6, 2023. The Corps did not require the response to be submitted by close of business on January 6, 2023 but rather on January 6, 2023. All of the correspondence that you provided regarding the deadline simply states January 6, 2023.
The applicant requests that you reactive the application as a submission was provided to you on January 6, 2023.
Upon receiving the RAI, the applicant has undergone extensive work and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring engineers, archeologist, biologist, legal, etc… to provide the Corps all the extensive and expansive information that was requested in the RAI. The applicant has provided sonar and magnetometer data, Phase I and Phase II archeological investigations which included the applicant flying in teams of archeologists. Additionally, the applicant has flown in teams of biologist, captains, and engineers ongoing upon receiving the RAI to provide a response and receive favorable review.
Additionally, during the November meeting between the Applicant and the Corps, minimization of the marina was discussed by Alisa Zarbo in a somewhat hostile and threatening manner and the Applicant and its consultants took that very seriously.
Following that meeting, the Applicant brought in its marina operations team, designers, financial advisors, legal team, and engineering team and made drastic minimization to the marina. The marina has been reengineered to incorporate these minimizations to submit these minimizations for a favorable decision response from the Corps.
The Corps allowed itself more than 7 months, from February 14, 2022 – September 21, 2022 to provide a response and deadline for additional information to be received. During that 7-month timeframe, the applicant consistently requested approval for the scope of work for the extensive benthic survey being required by the Corps and notified the Corps that its consultants were ready to initiate the survey and awaiting only the approval from the Corps.
Had the Corps timely approved the benthic scope of work, the applicant and its consultants would have had ample time to complete the survey without the threat of the application being deactivated. Instead, the Corps finally approved the benthic scope of work on October 6, 2022, nearly 8 months from the submission of the benthic scope of work and required a strict deadline to submit the work or staff would didactive the application.
The Applicant s team of biologist began work immediately upon approval of the scope of work and notified staff that the survey work had been initiated and is ongoing. The lead biologist is an expert in her field in permitting marina projects and has stayed in communication with staff regarding the progress and survey limitations caused by uncontrollable weather conditions.
The lead biologist notified staff that conditions had cause extreme limitations and while her team was nearly complete, they needed only 2 more days of diving within the parameters approved in the scope of work to complete the survey property and that these delays were uncontrollable weather conditions.
The biologist requested only an additional 10 days to submit the completed survey due to the uncontrollable weather conditions. The lead biologist states that in her decades of experience with the Corps, this is a completely reasonable request to which she’d never been denied under similar circumstances. While the Corps took more than 7 months to respond to the previous RAI response submission and nearly 8 months to approve the scope of work for the extensive and expansive benthic survey they have required, the Applicant has taken only 3 ½ months to fund and provide all of this extensive information.
The Applicant has shown a complete willingness, dedication, and desire to work with the Corps and to provide the requested information completely for a favorable permit decision. During the preparation of the Applicant s response, the Applicant s marina consultants requested additional guidance and a meeting with staff as he was reengineering the marina to address staff s concerns. Despite the efforts being undergone by the Applicant and consultants to successfully address the Corps concerns, that request was denied by staff.
During final preparation of the Applicants response, the Applicants lead biologist requested on two separate occasions, only 10 additional days to complete the benthic survey following the parameters approved in the scope of work. Despite her consistent effort to successfully complete the survey within the parameters of the scope of work and her consistent communication with staff, both of those requests were denied by staff.
The Applicant timely submitted its response to the RAI on January 6, 2023 with the exception of the completed benthic survey. The Applicant will submit the completed benthic survey by the end of this week and once it is complete. The Applicant respectfully requests the Corps to reactivate the application and begin its review of the submitted responses and allow the benthic survey to be submitted upon completion this week. Additionally, the Applicant requests a meeting the staff to review the submission for completeness.
Regards,
Chaliese
From: Burns, Samantha L CIV USARMY CESAJ (USA)
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2023 1:35 PM
To: Chaliese Summers <csummers@summersendvi.com>;
Gonzalez, Alberto CIV USARMY CESAJ (USA)
Cc: Kaynor, Susan R CIV USARMY CESAJ (USA)
Subject: RE: Summers End – responses
Good Afternoon Chaliese,
First and foremost thank you for reaching out to us and providing the response to that last RAI. We are working on reviewing the information and are anticipating reactivating the application once the benthic survey has been provided. The Corps understands the length and time that all participants have taken with the project to get it to this point. I can assure you that we will review the latest submittal and work with you and your staff on moving forward with the process. We do have our timeframes within our regulations that we have to also abide by while still meeting the needs or restraints the project has faced. The remaining actions needed to be taken to complete the benthic survey were completely out of the biologists hands as it was dependent on the weather and onsite conditions. There was no guarantee that an additional 10 days would provide favorable conditions to complete the work. However, the Corps does recognize the efforts from your team to maintain communication and provide information as it became available.
Once the benthic survey is provided, Albert will review the provided response for completeness. If there are any questions that arise from his review he will coordinate those with you. We can definitely also arrange a meeting to discuss any questions he may have. Once again, I want to thank you for your efforts in providing the extensive response and Albert will be in touch with your team as soon as he is able to complete his review of the RAI response including the benthic survey results.
Regards,
Samantha L. Burns
Chief, Antilles-Miami Permitting Section
Jacksonville District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers