The Site Plan at left illustrates the 152-room resort proposed by Plexar Capital LLC to be located in the general area of the old Luba Hati resort, just north of Robert's Grove.
In addition to an overpass OVER the Placencia Road (running along the road for the length of resort), and the excavation of 2,648,600 cubic feet of fill to be dredged from Lagoon for the construction of 6.7 acres of canals, the resort would also include:
- 46 hotel suites
- 15 beach residences
- 100 meter (328 foot) pier in the Caribbean
- Semi-circular boating "canal" opening in the Placencia Lagoon (150 boat slips plus 50 repair slips)
- 13 spa residences
- 36 garden residences
- 16 island residences
- 26 mangrove residences
- 150 (one hundred fifty) swiming and plunge pools
- 65,000 square feet of parking
- An overpass OVER the Placencia road so that guests and golf carts won't have to cross the road to get from one side of the resort to the other. (Cars would drive OVER the existing road.)
- Water to be drawn from the Placencia Lagoon and treated by reverse osmosis. The Placencia water supply will only be used to supplement this main water supply. Rainwater will also be used.
Potential negative impacts from the development identified in the EIA for the proposed resort included loss of mangroves, increased effluent discharge in area waters, use of drinking water resources, increase in the amount of garbage that will need to be treated at the Placencia dump an potential harm to manatees. Positive impacts identified in the EIA included creation of 50-75 construction jobs, 50 permanent on-site jobs and in excess of US$10 million in net foreign exchange per year at "full scale development."
Construction has not yet started even though the EIA anticipated breaking ground in February 2008.
As is the usual case, The Placencia Resort was approved by the Department of Environment, with the following conditions and restrictions.
- The Department of the Environment approved the
elevated roadway at a height of 8 feet, subject to approval by the Ministry of Works and the Association of Professional Engineers. The developer must also do a geo-technical site
assessment of the load bearing capacity of the ground beneath this section of
the road. This assessment must be approved by DOE before construction of the
road can begin.
- The developers stated in their EIA that all of the
water required for the development would come from reverse osmosis treatment of
Lagoon water. However, the ECP allows them to obtain water from the Placencia
and Seine Bight water supply, in addition to water from cisterns, wells and
reverse osmosis treatment.
- Approval was not given for
the Island and Lagoon Residences to be located on the Placencia Lagoon.
However, DOE denied approval based on the developer's lack of ownership or legal
control of this part of the property. The developer may apply for approval for
the Lagoon part of the development once it has ownership and/or legal control of
the area on which these residences will be located
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- DOE reduced the number of wet slips approved for the
marina from 150 to 75.
- A 66-foot reserve must be retained along the
perimeter of the resort.
- The marina can be excavated to a maximum depth of 3
meters (9.84 feet)
- Two feet will be added to the elevation of the
ground on which the development will be located.
- The ECP requires a spoil dewatering area for dredged
materials to be deposited so that they cannot run-off into the Lagoon. The
developer also cannot remove sediment from the de-watering site until at least
80% of the water content is removed from the sediment.
- The developer must implement a water quality
monitoring program that measures turbidity, ammonia, nitrogen, suspended solids,
alkalinity, chemical oxygen demand, phosphates, nitrites/nitrates, temperature,
pH and wastewater volume. The water quality monitoring must be done yearly on
the Lagoon, the Sea and all interior waterways. The developer must make its
water quality monitoring results available on-site at all times for inspection.
(Who can ask to see the monitoring results is not specified.)
- Treated effluent from the sewage treatment plant can
be recycled for irrigation. Swimming pool water will be dumped into the
Caribbean after treatment in a photo-oxidation pond. (Note: the development
will have approximately 110 (one hundred and ten) swimming pools - basically one
for each unit.)
- Water quality tests on treated effluent from the
sewage system must be done each month and submitted to DOE.
- The public must be able to temporarily
use designated boat slips in the marina.
- Sediment traps are required for the resort's roadway
drainage system and settlement ponds must be incorporated into the development.
Drainage from settlement ponds will go into the inland waterways and cannot be
dumped into either the Lagoon or the Sea.
- Generators must be
sound-proofed.
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Attachments (6)
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Comment Letter Placencia Resort 28 Jan 2008.pdf - on Apr 20, 2009 11:53 AM by mtoy@destinationsbelize.com (version 1)
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Letter from DOE re status.jpg - on Apr 20, 2009 11:54 AM by mtoy@destinationsbelize.com (version 1)
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Placencia Resort ECP.pdf - on Apr 20, 2009 12:04 PM by mtoy@destinationsbelize.com (version 1)
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PlacenciaResortEIA_02-Exec.pdf - on Apr 20, 2009 12:25 PM by mtoy@destinationsbelize.com (version 1)
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PlacenciaResortEIA_03-ProjDesc.pdf - on Apr 20, 2009 12:30 PM by mtoy@destinationsbelize.com (version 1)
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PlacenciaResortEIA_06-Alternatives.pdf - on Apr 20, 2009 12:41 PM by mtoy@destinationsbelize.com (version 1)
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