WILLEMSTAD – The latest legal battle surrounding The View Resort & Marina is no longer limited to whether buildings in Zakitó were constructed according to their original permits. Residents are also challenging whether the government adequately considered the impact of the modified development on the surrounding community before issuing new approvals.
Save Zakitó will ask the Court of First Instance on September 30 for an interim measure preventing further construction on buildings 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 while the residents examine recently issued permits and the documents supporting them.
The residents point to prolonged problems associated with the development, including construction traffic, noise, dust and mosquitoes, and want to know how those effects were considered when the government approved modifications to the project.
The latest proceeding follows a significant ruling in July.
The Court found at the time that construction on buildings 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 had deviated from the drawings authorized under their building permits. Because no applications to legalize those changes were pending at the time, the minister was ordered to reconsider a request by residents for enforcement action.
New permits have subsequently been issued, according to Save Zakitó, changing the legal situation that existed when the Court delivered its earlier ruling.
One of those approvals is permit 502/2026, which concerns a modified execution of The View project. Building 2 is also reportedly covered by a separate new permit.
For the residents, however, the existence of those permits creates a new question: what exactly has the government now legalized?
Save Zakitó wants the government to demonstrate the answer by comparing what was originally approved with the revised plans and the buildings as they have actually been constructed.
The organization says it cannot properly conduct that assessment with the documents currently available.
Although the minister submitted material to the Court on September 18 dealing with issues including fire safety, explosion hazards, wind direction and sightlines, Save Zakitó says important technical documentation was not included.
According to the residents, the missing material includes old and new building drawings, structural calculations and an opinion from the Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature referenced elsewhere in the documents.
That leaves residents questioning not only whether all construction deviations have now been formally legalized, but also whether the new decisions were based on a sufficiently complete assessment.
The controversy illustrates how the legal dispute surrounding The View has evolved.
The question before the Court in July was whether the government could refuse enforcement despite unauthorized deviations from approved drawings. The Court concluded that, for five buildings, it could not do so under the circumstances existing at that time.
With new permits now issued, the dispute has shifted toward whether those permits actually cover what has been built, whether they are adequately supported by technical documentation and whether the interests of neighboring residents were properly considered.
Save Zakitó wants construction stopped temporarily while those questions are examined.
The Court will now have to consider whether the residents' concerns justify intervening again while the broader dispute over the Zakitó development continues.