A five-star hotel with a golf course and marina was proposed for development near Hans Creek, on the south east side of the island.

This approval was questionable because Hans Creek is a location that the Virgin Islands Fisheries Regulations had marked as protected, making it illegal to develop anything that would harmfully affect the environment.

In July VIEC collected 18,000 signatures in support of their efforts from people around the world and presented it to local government agencies.

Later in 2007 tactics shifted from protests and demonstrations to focusing on legal proceedings against the government for giving permission to build in a protected location.

In 2008 VIEC received additional legal and financial support from the Ocean River Institute, an organization based in the United States.