COMMUNICATOR
(45 Day Operating Permit Granted)

By way of an update on the Little French Key matter, the Alcadia and Little French Key had a meeting the week of Sept 16th.

In that meeting, a temporary operating permit was issued in exchange for specific deliverables on the part of Roatan's Alcaldia and Little French Key. It should not go unnoticed that negative rhetoric on both sides has subsided significantly. Little French Key for their part, issued a public apology a few days before the meeting mentioned above. Since then, both the Alcaldia and Little French Key have done their part to keep this matter behind closed doors and away from social media. The case appears to be back inside the courtrooms where it belonged in the first place, and for that, we commend the leadership of both camps.

Dispute Background →

What follows is a translated copy of the notice that came out of the Alcaldia just days after the meeting.

TRANSLATION OF PUBLIC NOTICE:

Minutes of Meeting and Conciliation Agreement:
Kaveh Lahijani/Little French Key and The Municipality of Roatan

LOCATION: Municipal Department of Justice, Roatan, Bay Islands
DATE: September 17th, 2018, at 10.30am.

The following are present for this meeting at the Department of Justice offices:

Mr. Kaveh Lahijani, speaking for himself and the Little French Key resort development.
Mr. Lahijani is accompanied by Seth Leonardo Arch Lopez, acting as a witness to the proceedings, and translator from Spanish to English.
The Municipality of Roatan’s, Mayor Mr. Jerry Dave Hynds Julio.
The Municipality of Roatan’s legal representative, Mr. Jose Angel Carranza

This meeting is being conducted to keep a record of and to reach a compromise on, the mandatory fulfillment of the conditions expressed in a previous meeting, which was called by Mr. Kaveh Lahijani.

The following were present at that meeting:

Roatan Municipality’s Vice Mayor, Ms. Valerie Nicole Brady
Roatan Municipality Councillor, Ms. Nidia Hernandez Webster
A representative from the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Emsly Hyde
A representative from French Key’s community organization, Mr. Heber Dixon

At this meeting, the following agreement was made:

ONE - Mr. Kaveh Lahijani commits not to carry out any construction whatsoever on the seabed, without the required environmental licensing, merchant marine and municipal permits. This also applies to the extension of existing structures on the seafloor.

TWO - He commits, that within a 45 day period from this date, to appear at the offices of the Merchant Marine Department, the Secretary of MiAmbiente (government institution responsible for sustainable development), and the ICF (Institute of Forestry Conservation), with the purpose of requesting conciliation agreements and commitments with these institutions, with the goal of obtaining the proper permits to operate Little French Key legally.

THREE - He commits to clear up outstanding payments and fines to the Municipality of Roatan Corporation.

FOUR - The Municipality of Roatan has granted a TEMPORARY OPERATING PERMIT, for 45 days from this date to be able to operate Little French Key. Within this timeframe, he will have to present the conciliation agreements and commitments, as stated previously, to the Municipality of Roatan.

For record-keeping, the minutes of this meeting were reviewed and read in English and Spanish and signed by the present parties.

Translated by: An able Roatanian.