After S.T.O.P heard through the grape vine in September that the Mayan Beach Club was planning on knocking down the Mayan dune because it blocked their view of the ocean, we immediately took legal action. We filed a petition for an administrative hearing to ensure that the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) had in fact issued this permit to destroy a healthy dune that is supposed to be protected.

The original permit required the dune have the top 3 feet removed and rebuilt to the north. This would have taken one big dune and made two average size dunes. The original permit seemed reasonable for everyone except the folks of the Mayan Beach Club. They wanted the entire dune removed from their property. Their engineering firm (Coastal Systems International ) said in the permit modification request "that they felt the dune was an impact for nest sea turtle because it obstructed their path to the beach". Clearly they know nothing about sea turtle nesting and did not consult any biologists. In reality, sea turtles prefer to nest on dunes which provide them with protection from storm surge.

During the court proceedings, we discovered internal email communications that should have been turned over to us because of the Sunshine Law of the State of Florida. These emails contained key evidence that the DEP issued this modified permit because of politics and not science! These two letters we found in our discover file that was finally handed over to us three months late were not allowed into evidence by the Judge. We all felt that this was a kangaroo court proceeding and that the Judge was influenced by the Governors political influence just like the DEP.  The Department of Environmental Protection was serving the interests of Governor Rick Scott and not the citizens.

Now that the DEP has had a shot across the bow from Hurricane Sandy and the entire east coast has experienced massive beach erosion due to loss of habitat and overdevelopment of coastal areas prone to coastal flooding during storm events.  We will now need Federal funding to rebuild damaged beaches due to improper coastal development and beach management practices.

Why should the citizens of the United States continue to pay for hundreds of millions of dollars to protect or rebuild private coastal properties in hurricane flood zones over and over and over again?

Here are the emails between Keith Beck of Mayan Beach Club and Govener Rick Scott.

From Keith Beck
Mayan Beach Club
1850 South Ocean Lane  Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
(954) 523-8245

Reply from Gov. Rick Scott

Video from 12/6/2012 AFTER the destruction of the Mayan Dune.