This, after he was slapped with three breaches of the act, following construction of two seawalls and a pylon on his property at the edge of the famed Blue Lagoon in the parish. Wilson was fined $10,000 for each of the three counts.
A section of the beach at the Blue Lagoon in Portland, where environmental breaches were recently detected and for which the developer was charged.
The developer was last year granted the licence by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) — an agent and administrator for the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) board — to operate a beach at the lagoon, also known as Blue Hole.
The award of the licence sparked outcry from local environmental lobbyists, the likes of Diana McCaulay, head of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), who have insisted that the area ought to remain untouched.
The fact that work began at the site without the requisite approval further incited the 'green' lobby — to the point where JET wrote to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, then the minister with portfolio responsibility for the environment, on the matter.
That letter, dated April 11 this year, noted their objection "to the granting of a beach licence by the NRCA to build and operate an artificial beach in Blue Lagoon". Attached to the letter was general information on the lagoon; its legal status as being subject to the Preservation Order, in keeping with the National Trust Law; comments from visitors, and photographs of the site.
NEPA subsequently compiled a report on the work at the lagoon for the prime minister and later defended its decision to grant the beach licence. This, after their 2009 rejection of a 2008 application from Wilson for a beach licence and the construction of a slipway.
"The construction of the slipway is refused as the launch and use of motorised vessels are being discouraged in the area, and as such, the construction of the slipway is not deemed appropriate at this time," the NRCA said in a January 29, 2009 letter to the developer, justifying its refusal to approve the application.
The letter said further that: "The proposed coastline modification and use of the beach for commercial recreational purposes will degrade the environmental character of the area."
However, in the wake of issuing the licence and since renewing it this year, NEPA has had to serve warning notices on the developer for various breaches -- including those for which he was fined on Monday.
Still, the environmental regulatory agency has defended its award of the licence, noting that: "The NRCA and NEPA have conducted extensive review on the controversial developments around the Blue Lagoon and have decided that the beach licence issued to the developer (Devon Wilson) was proper and complied with the requirements outlined in the Beach Control Act (1956) Beach Control Amendment (2004)."
This was detailed in a statement issued by Information Minister Daryl Vaz on May 25, following his receipt of the NEPA report on the lagoon.
The developer, for his part, has indicated his willingness to comply with any and all stipulations from NEPA going forward, insisting that he, too, is interested in seeing to the preservation of the area.
"If we are building a development, it is in our best interest to have the Blue Lagoon at its best because that is our attraction. With the Blue Lagoon at its best, it is going to mean success for our development," Collin Bell, spokesman for the developer and operations manager for Tropical Lagoon Heights Resort, told the Sunday Observer in May.
