🚧 Delays in Environmental Impact Assessment for Port Zeus attributed to developers

Frank Schilling, the developer behind the proposed Port Zeus (Brac Marina Village), has erroneously claimed that the Department of Environment (DoE) is responsible for delays in producing an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the project. The DoE clarified that the nine-month delay in establishing the project’s Environmental Assessment Board was due to the time taken by the project’s consultancy firm to prepare the draft terms of reference for the EIA. Schilling, a dot.com millionaire turned developer, is the latest to wrongly criticize the DoE over development delays. 🏗️

The DoE is working to increase public understanding of the processes under the conservation law, the challenges its experts face in curbing excessive development, and the misinformation being spread by those who seek to remove even reasonable constraints on development. DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie explained that an EIA is carried out by the project proponent or applicant, with oversight from an Environmental Assessment Board (EAB). The EIA process and the timelines for the EAB to respond to submission of key documents are outlined in the National Conservation Act EIA Directive (2016). 🌳

The developers or owners of a project are supposed to prepare and conduct the EIA, which is then reviewed by the EAB. The duration of an EIA is usually controlled by the proponent and their consultants and depends on the nature of the project. Ebanks-Petrie emphasized that EIAs are not decisions; they are information reports to help decision-makers make fully informed decisions. As EIAs are all public, the DoE has reproduced a timeline of the Port Zeus EIA process to counter the false information that appeared in a recent article in the Cayman Compass, largely based on inaccurate claims made by the developer. 📝