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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesDPNR: DEPARTMENT DIDN’T SLOW BEAL PERMITTING

DPNR: DEPARTMENT DIDN’T SLOW BEAL PERMITTING

The commissioner of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources denied Wednesday that his agency was a factor in Beal Aerospace’s abandoning its plans for St. Croix.
Commissioner Dean Plaskett, who is a lawyer, was responding to published reports that Beal wanted to file Coastal Zone Management permit applications but DPNR refused to accept them.
"Such suggestion is absolutely false," Plaskett said.
Instead, he pointed to Territorial Court Judge Alphonso Andrews’ Dec. 15 ruling that blocked a land exchange between Beal and the V.I. government. The swap, which was approved by the Legislature in October, would have given Beal 14.5 acres of public property, called Camp Arawak, on Great Pond Bay and changed waterfront and residential zoning to industrial.
Because the property sits within the coastal zone, special permits would have been required before Beal could begin construction of its proposed 320,000-square-foot world headquarters and rocket assembly plant. Beal held the option on some 250 acres adjacent to the Camp Arawak site to accommodate the majority of the proposed development.
Plaskett said the company was free to prepare the permit documentation it thought necessary. But, he said, because Andrews had issued a temporary restraining order against the land swap in early October, then a permanent injunction and finally an opinion and order in December, DPNR could not accept a CZM application from the company.
"DPNR was restrained by the judge from accepting Beal’s application during the period the matter was pending, as there was a pending legal challenge of ownership," Plaskett explained. "Subsequent to the judge’s order, DPNR was statutorily prohibited from accepting any application for a permit from Beal because, according to Judge Andrews’ decision, Beal did not have title in any form to the property it intended to rezone and obtain a permit to construct in the coastal zone."
On Jan. 7, Beal announced that it was pulling out of St. Croix, days after the company said it received an offer from the State of Florida to move the headquarters-rocket assembly proposal to Cape Canaveral. Beal, however, hasn’t commented officially as to why the company decided against St. Croix.

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