Supreme Court application filed against Ara Macao

It has been a busy session for the civil side of the Supreme Court and earlier this week another important suit was filed, this time against a proposed tourism development near Placencia called Ara Macao. On Tuesday, attorney Antoinette Moore, on behalf of the Peninsula Citizens for Sustainable Development, filed an application for permission to have the court review the decision made by the Department of the Environment to give the project clearance. The grounds for seeking judicial review are that the decision by D.O.E. was unlawful because it failed to consider public comments on the proposal as well as its cumulative impact when added to other developments on the peninsula. The application also claims the decision was unreasonable because it did not require sufficient testing of the extent of the area’s water resources. The initial hearing on the motion is set for Friday, April twentieth, in the court of Justice Samuel Awich.