For more than 11 years, the Summer’s End Group has been awaiting a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in order to move forward with their plan to build an upscale marina in Coral Bay.
On April 20, that permit was quietly issued, paving the way for construction to begin on the 115-slip marina and land-based development that includes a retail complex, boardwalk, and a luxury boutique hotel.
But opponents of the project, including David Silverman, president of Save Coral Bay, say they will continue to fight the project, which they consider structurally unsound and detrimental to the environment.
The project has been controversial since it was first presented to the public in 2014. Challenges have been mounted in local and federal courts and even submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court. The V.I. Coastal Zone Management Commission, the Board of Land Use Appeals, the Virgin Islands Senate, and numerous federal agencies have all been involved in rulings that have temporarily hastened or halted the project’s viability.
The Army Corps’ permit has been considered critical to the project’s survival. As recently as April, Save Coral Bay presented the Corps with a petition including 3,000 signatures asking that the federal agency hold public hearings on the project. That request was denied.
The Army Corps’ announcement of the permit’s approval dated May 1 stated that the agency is moving forward with its “Building Infrastructure Not Paperwork” initiative. The policy is intended to “provide faster decisions” and accelerate “the delivery of vital infrastructure projects.”
“USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) is neither a proponent nor opponent of any proposed project. USACE’s mission is to provide the regulated public with fair and reasonable decisions while providing protection of the Nation’s aquatic resources and navigation,” the statement concludes.
The Army Corps statement outlines the scope of the project:
- “The Standard Permit issued to the Summer’s End Group will allow construction of a marina within the Coral Harbor.
- “The 67,833 square-foot fixed-dock marina would consist of 115 slips to accommodate vessels of varying lengths estimated to range from 30 feet to over 160 feet in length.
- “There would be an additional 12 single moorings constructed southeast of the marina so that the marina could accommodate a total of 127 vessels.
- “The marina includes a boardwalk along the shoreline and associated upland amenities.
- “As mitigative measures, the applicant would relocate four Solenastrea bournoni corals near the dock, outplant 3,000 coral specimens, install seven informational buoys, install information signs at the marina, provide pump out or waste disposal facilities, plant 300 red mangrove seedlings along the shoreline, and maintain 50 stormwater features in the uplands.
- “The applicant would also implement actions that result in the avoidance of impacts to a historic shipwreck.”
- “The project would result in impacts to 2.39 acres of seagrasses.
- “The applicant will be required to provide compensatory mitigation to offset the unavoidable impacts of the marina by restoring, enhancing, and establishing 4.596 acres of a complex of mangrove islands and 0.975 acres of sea grass habitat, conducting annual cleanup events in Coral Harbor, and complying with monitoring requirements and ecologically based performance standards.
- “The central components of that compensatory mitigation project have already been verified under Nationwide Permit 27 as an aquatic ecosystem restoration, enhancement, and establishment project. That project will now be relied on by the Summer’s End Group to provide compensatory mitigation for the authorized marina.”
Chaliese Summers, managing partner for the Summer’s End group, said the developers were pleased to receive the permit. “First, it is critical to understand that the USACE cannot issue this permit unless the project has a net positive impact to the environment.”
“From the project’s inception, Summer’s End has worked tirelessly with both our federal and territorial permitting partners to ensure the long-term health and vitality of St. John’s precious marine environment,” Summers continued. “Summer’s End will spend over $5.3 million in the protection of coral, sea grass, mangroves, and shore protection.”
Summers said the developers’ initial investment will be $130 million and will create more than 80 “direct and indirect, long-term full-time employment jobs for the island of St. John.”
She said that debris removal and site demolition have already begun, and work will “proceed uninterrupted until completed, barring any unforeseen circumstances or acts of God.”
Save Coral Bay sees much to dispute in her statements. “A fundamental flaw in the permit issuance is that the project has changed dramatically since it was proposed. Yet, the applicant and the Army Corps relied on required approvals given more than a decade ago for a project that simply no longer exists in that form,” said Silverman.
Among his concerns is “a mitigation plan that requires extensive dredging and at least 20,000 cubic yards of fill discharged into Coral Harbor. That quantity of fill is equivalent to two thousand truckloads of fill transported over Centerline Road and dumped into the harbor.”
He said this plan contradicts a 2014 Water Quality Certificate “which expressly states that there may not be any dredge or fill activity.”
In a post on Facebook, Silverman said he has not yet seen the Army Corps’ permit, so he can’t comment on what Save Coral Bay’s next actions will be. And although “the approval of a federal permit clearly removes a major hurdle for marina construction … it does not, and cannot, provide the territorial approvals required for construction to begin.”
“Summers End will need authorizations for use of submerged trust lands, for planting of coral, for placing 20 thousand cubic yards of fill in Coral Harbor, for excavation of shoreline land on Fortsberg, as well as a number of other authorizations not currently in place,” he added.
“So, although some may say, and some may believe that the story is over, this is actually just the beginning of a new chapter in the long-running saga of the Summer’s End Group,” Silverman said.
