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But it's a lot more complicated than that. Courtney Menzies delved into this decade-long dilemma. Here is her story.

Placencia's second largest revenue earner - the 2025 Lobster Fest is in deep danger - but even more so - the only publicly accessible beach on the peninsula is at risk of being taken away.

The "pint" as the residents call it is where locals and tourists gather year round. The sea is always calm and the sargassum is minimal. But the council has been in a fight to regain the area since it was sold to a private owner.

While discussions with the government were initially promising, those have come to a screeching halt and with only a month before the big event, the chairman received this email from the owner preventing them from using the property further. Not only that, but the owner intends to build on it, removing the portion of the boardwalk that is already there.

Chairman Warren Garbutt explained how it came to this.

Warren Garbutt, Chairman, Placencia Village
"We had tremendous progress in 2023 when the government delivered on their promise and did the first publication in the Gazette which is the first step in acquiring the property. I think there's a certain amount of time before the second publication can be made, that wasn't made and I believe that is because the owners of the property reached out to the government just trying to find an amicable solution and the way in which the property, they can resolve it without going to court. So the amount of time passed, I think more than a year, so we followed up and had meetings with the government at Lands Department. We were hopeful just a couple weeks before Easter when we got a promise that the second publication would be made so we went home very happy and then Easter came, we didn't get it so we went back with the help of our area rep to a next meeting and that meeting is when we got a different vibe that it will be difficult to acquire this property because of the ridiculous amount of money that the owners are asking."

"The council is not asking for the people's property, we're asking for just the portion that we've been using for decades."

And that portion is the accretion - land that grew gradually over the years. However, the president of the Belize Flats Fishery Association, and a Placencia tour guide, says that's not enough, and it's up to the government to save the last public beach in the village.

Eworth Garbutt, President, BFFA
"Correct me if I'm wrong, the last I heard about accretion, if the adjacent owner want it, it's theirs if there is no interest for the community extension. Lobster Fest has moved to that location because we ran out of land. The place where we used to have it is privately owned. Now we went on our own private beach, they moved us from there. Government what are you doing lately for the beach of Placencia that brings in so much money? You didn't do anything for the one that washed away, what are you doing for the one that we have? Give it away to foreign greed? No man, enough is enough."

"We're growing beyond our self and we're giving away so I'm saying to the investor, you want to do it right? We need to get back that 1.4 into the hands of the Placencia people and Belizean people."

Brice Dial, Councillor, Placencia Village Council
"We don't feel the land should have ever been sold in the first place, it should have never been privatized in the first place, there was absolutely no good reason to do that. The original piece of land at 1.4 acres was plenty for a private person to buy. Why did they also have to lump in .37 acres and also was that process done properly? We haven't seen the proper documentation to show that either they applied for a lease for that accretion or they applied for that application and also I would like to add that in 2020 we did receive a document in black and white giving the council a license to use that land. That license was valid for 3 years and at the time of the sale, that license was still in use so something happening along the way and basically the community got the bad end of the deal."

The chairman believes the owner, as a foreigner, hasn't fully grasped that this isn't just a piece of land it's almost sacred ground in the life of the village, a space deeply woven into its sense of community.

Warren Garbutt, Chairman, Placencia Village
"The owner has absolutely no ties to Belize, they haven't invested, besides maybe a few little surveys and title search and that kind of thing, they've invested nothing in the property. The property is abandoned and people are using it literally as a dump site, which is against our will as well, we don't want people to do that. But it's abandoned so, so many people move into Placencia and move into one little structure that's there. But I don't think the owners recognize the significance of this property to the village."

But the council isn't giving up the fight and they will be pleading their case to the Ministry of Natural Resources tomorrow.

Brice Dial, Councillor, Placencia Village Council
"After we leave from here tomorrow we have a scheduled meeting at the Lands Department with the CEO of Natural Resources. We are going into this meeting as the voice of the Placencia people, we don't plan to take no as an answer. They have promised us in previous meetings that they were going to follow through with the reacquisition process, they have taken that first step, all that's left to do is to make that second publication in the Gazette and to move forward with the negotiations with the claimant of the property."

"Taking no from the government is not an option for us, we don't plan to walk away from this property."

We reached out to attorney Magalie Perdomo, who represents the landowner. She clarified that, according to this map, the plot that her client owns does not include 100-180 feet of Queen's land along the beach and does not block access to it.

She also issued a statement that says, quote, "My client has never abandoned the land. She has contractors ready to clean, fence, and build a home for her family… Her titled land begins inland from the boardwalk. She is open to working with the village council on a fair solution but is not prepared to give up 0.4 acres of her legally owned beachfront property." End quote.

And in this map, an illustration of where exactly the boardwalk lands shows that it is partially in her property - which is parcel 2010. The owner of the land has offered to pay to shift the boardwalk off of her plot and onto the beach.

But where does the Ministry of Natural Resources stand in all this? Well, they also issued a statement explaining that back in 2023, they published their intention to compulsorily acquire the portion of the private property traditionally used by the community - that is, that same section that the boardwalk falls on. The landowner and her attorneys then reached out with an aim to voluntarily sell that portion of the land to the government. That process has taken some time and the 6 week window to compulsorily acquire the land has passed.

The Ministry further explained that, quote, "We have been at a standstill for some time. The land owners have told us their valuation is approximately BZ$4.5 million. Meanwhile, government's own valuation is saying the value is much less than that. We are attempting to meet again with the land owner's attorneys so that we can revisit negotiations on the value." End quote.

The statement then says that regardless of the route, the landowner must still be compensated and as such, they are trying to negotiate the best outcome.

But with two weeks left until the council needs to start planning the Lobster Fest, tensions are very high.