Work underway on new national plan
George Town, Grand Cayman
(CNS): Many years after the government, in accordance with its own laws, should have begun reviewing the existing development plan for Grand Cayman, the Department of Planning is now working on updating the island-wide plan, which is intended to guide the physical development and overall use of land. Officials are asking for public input for “Plan Cayman”, which is supposed to be a long-range, comprehensive strategy that will cover the natural environment, transportation, infrastructure, recreation and open spaces, as well as the land use in general.
“This process is one of the key tasks government has set out to accomplish, as part of our strategy for developing a strong economy for the Cayman Islands,” Planning Minister Joey Hew said in a press release. “Our infrastructure has a direct impact on our businesses, communities and families; and to ensure it is sustainable in the future, we need the public to have its say.”
The planning department began with a website, PlanCayman, which officials said was launched last month to educate the public on the purpose and structure of the development plan, where they can find documents, learn about upcoming events and provide feedback.
The first document to be made available online for public input is the National Planning Framework. The document, which was drafted by the Central Planning Authority (CPA) under the mandate of the Development and Planning Law, sets out long-term goals for land use on the island.
The planning department is consulting relevant public authorities and stakeholders, as well as engaging with the public, to ensure agreement on the approach of the plan. It also plans to interact with the community on social media, as a means of gaining feedback, by posting updates on the social media pages of government and the planning ministry.
“We want the public to be involved because this directly impacts the community,” said Planning Director Haroon Pandohie. “PlanCayman is an opportunity to guide the future of Grand Cayman. At this stage we want to know whether you think we are on the right track.”
Public feedback will be accepted on the National Planning Framework until Monday, 28 January 2019. After that, the document will be revised based on feedback received from the public, officials said.
The department will then begin preparing more detailed area plans for various parts of Grand Cayman, beginning with the Seven Mile Beach tourism corridor, and the public will be invited to be involved in that process. The various documents will then be amalgamated to create the draft of the development plan.
“This is just the beginning of this process,” Pandohie said. “As we move forward, there will be more opportunities for the community to get involved and help shape the overall plan, and we encourage people to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Government has been criticised for dragging its heels on this issue and accused of paying lip service to real long-term planning, with the developers always seeming to have the upper hand and little consideration given to preserving the natural environment or preparing for the impact of climate change.
The membership of the Central Planning Authority, which gives final approval to projects, has also been strongly criticised, including by the auditor general, for being very conflicted, as it is heavily weighted towards development, with the chair being the Cayman Islands’ largest retailer of construction materials.
Category: development, Local News
here ye here ye…all invited to the freemason hall…
To all of you posters who obviously are all from the sme 3asteroid as 10:06 AM, last call for your spaceship, or you will implode shortlly.
A big part of the script surely involves continuing to stall enactment of the Standards in Public Life Law or any measure to bring a semblance of scrutiny to Cabinet actions and motives.
Why are some of youse so unimportant and cynical. Go get a job.
25+ years late… Cycle lanes and pedestrians have NEVER been considered when they should be a priority.
I tried accessing the Development Plan website for review and comments – can’t get past the Home page. Also, some fields are marked “TBD” – I presume “to be developed”. So why post an incomplete “Plan” which can’t be accessed by the public, but yet ask for public input?!
I’m convinced morons are in charge!!
More material for the landfill.
Plan? Planning? They don’t know what that is!! Morons in charge!
The plan is very simple:
1 cover the country in as much concrete as possible
2 destroy all the wild habitat and bush you can
3 replace all of it with cheap tasteless housing
4 annihilate the native species
5 ignore all those environmental and planning laws that you just passed and pay the bribe.
This will end up in the same drawer as Vision 2008.
I think one of the main areas which needs to be prioritised is the Hurley’s roundabout. I’m not an engineer and this is only my opinion, but I would think that an overhead road for the traffic on Crewe Road would solve a lot of issues. There would be an exit lane for Grand Harbour, but otherwise the traffic in both directions could go straight through without needing to slow down or stop for the traffic coming from South Sound.
The South Sound traffic would go under the overpass and join it in a long merging lane east of Grand Harbour.
This would obviously be a major project, but the blocked traffic on all roads currently caused by that roundabout is getting worse and worse! What’s the use having by-passes before and after it?
Again, I’m just throwing this idea out there – certainly works in cities!
that is not the worst idea i’ve heard, maybe NRA would at least consider it
We’re not a ‘city’ and what you’re proposing will impact tourism. Longtime visitors tend to frown on metropolitan upgrades because they’re used to that where they come from. Let’s keep it quaint shall we?
Firstly, the Hurley’s roundabout has never been “quaint”. And secondly, I’m sure that the negative effect on tourists who are stuck in a traffic jam while trying to travel east by far exceeds any feeling of disappointment of this particular upgrade!
If people actually used the roundabouts correctly this wouldn’t be an issue. No sitting in the outside lane to go all the way around! No waiting for both lanes to be clear before entering the roundabout!
8.06am you are correct ” it works in cities” This is An ISLAND(s) for Gods sake. May God help us New National Plan !!!! For who??? We are headed for a train wreck..,. Environmental disaster looming Bo Bo.
It would be infinitely better than a roundabout!
I think Old Crewe Road should be restricted to local traffic only. The people using that road as a shortcut cause the back-up on South Sound Road. The police could “guard” that road in the evenings like they do to the road at Prospect School/Patrick’s Island in the mornings.
Good comment 8.06 am but it’s not the roundabout that’s at fault it’s the way people drive because after all these years people still do not understand you give way to the right.
I agree with you but the main problem at Hurleys is too much traffic and no alternative route to spread the load.
As many people said before, all the road widening leading up to Hurleys has only made the bottleneck worse. Now the queues are all the way back blocking the roundabout at King’s most evenings and from much, much earlier. Combined with generally appalling standards of driving it makes for an extremely stressful daily commute of 1-2 hours each way for anyone who lives beyond Countryside. More still if there’s an accident, because again, out there only one route, everything gridlocked. I join a traffic jam from leaving my street in BT every morning around 6, and all the way to GT for work. If the Trolley Roger hits the road in a morning, and it often does, you can add another 20-30 minutes behind as it dangerously weaves it’s way to town, without ever having the courtesy to pull aside for a few minutes to relieve the long queue of traffic behind it.
People living out East would love to actually have a work/life balance but it’s impossible to achieve. We need a lot more than just safe driving to fix the problem at Hurleys.
I agree 100% with you with regards to the weaving Trolley Roger. I have seen drivers completely enraged because they are stuck behind this driver who flatly refuses, as you say, to pull to the side once in a while to let the traffic get by. I have witnessed some dangerous overtaking, and although at the end of the day it would be the driver who is overtaking’s fault if there was an accident, some of the blame should like on the driver of the Trolley Roger who leaves in the middle of rush hour and causes massive delays.
Why does he not organise an overnight parking spot in town, instead? If this is not possible, sorry buddy, but you need to leave at 5 am when you will not disrupt school traffic!
Isn’t there a law against driving too slowly?
I believe something needs to be done about him as there will unfortunately be a serious accident one day due to his bad choice of time to leave in the morning.
I completely agree with blocking Old Crewe Road at rush hour. After sitting in half an hour of traffic on South Sound Road you realise it is all being caused by people cutting in from Old Crewe Road. The two roads intersect in such a way that it is far too easy for cars to slip in; if you are on South Sound Road you have to tailgate the car in front of you if you do not want to let one or three through and increase the misery for everyone behind you. I live between Old Crewe Road and the roundabout so it is maddening that people who have so much farther to drive anyway make my very short drive take so very long. It’s just torture for everyone. Local access only for Old Crewe Road so those living on the eastern half of South Sound Road can actually access their homes between 4.45 – 6.45 p.m. It’s a bit of a problem when not even a monster truck would allow me to get to my home between those hours if I needed to do so quickly.
The other thing is, what are all these cars coming FROM the east in the evening doing? Are there that many people who drive out there to work and need to get back into town and areas beyond at rush hour? If so, build a road over the roundabout so those cars that will be driving straight through do not prevent cars on South Sound Road from entering the roundabout. What happens now is cars on South Sound Road have to wait to enter the roundabout for cars from the east, and when they finally get into the roundabout, cars from Crewe Road then have to wait to enter the roundabout. It is 90% waiting, 10% driving. The roundabout itself never has more than one or two cars in it and there is no traffic once you get past it.
The whole chokepoint needs to be recognised for what it is and re-engineered. I was very disappointed to see they paved it a week ago. That was their chance to tear up the road without having wasted any money and fix the junction to resolve the jams.
I really don’t know why people put up with this, or how those in government aren’t inconvenienced by it enough themselves to fix it as a matter of priority.
The 1977 Development and Planning Law required a review of the National Development Plan every 5 years. The first review was done in 1997 (20 years late). Now the 2nd review is starting in the last part of 2018 (another 21 years late).
Government and the Central Planning Authority has been has been in contravention of the Development and Planning Law for over 16 years without any consequences.
Mr. Director Pandohie, we do not need 10 rounds of public consultations on this review, just 2 rounds will suffice – one now, then you revise based feedback, then one more to present the revised version, then you finalise. We are supposed to be reviewing every 5 years anyway so by the time the 2nd consultation on the revised plan is presented, we wont have long to wait for your lawfully required 5year review.
Any more than 2 public consultations and we will see that Govt is just paying lip serwice again and again and again….
national plan failed when it put the new gov admin building in town……cayman will never recover from that stupidity….
Anyone hear that big sucking sound followed by a pop? That just might be MLA’s heads pulling out of the sand.
Wait for it, might be vote bait for the next election. Then again, well done most Honourable Ones if you can deliver well overdue 21st Century legislation.
this task is way beyond the abilities of anybody in the civil service….
Yep 8.59pm. Grandio stupid ideas put forward by stupid consultants that these officials “thinks” we need… where were these when these islands were being carefully built with common sense, honesty and intregrity. We don’t need these users/brain washers advising us.!!!!!!!! Shame on all of you MLA.
The only lanes you can add to best solve the traffic problem is bike lanes.
I sit in my car burning gas every day on my way home and watch people on bicycles taking a healthy option and zooming past me..
Just wish the roads here weren’t so cyclist unfriendly. I’ve noticed it’s the drivers too! Driving in cycling lane for one, or driving close just to be an a*hole.
and yet we have caymankind complaining about e-scooters and e-bikes… zzzz
Which are illegal to operate on a public road. No different than murder. Change the law or shut up.
incorrect…..
Too many people on this Island. New national plan needs to be put in place for these.
Agreed, the line should be drawn at the 5th generation mark. Let the purge begin!
Honestly that would get rid of 80% of our social problems and achieve a modest increase in the average capabilities of Caymanians across the board. There are a lot of qualities in this society that some of us from old enough families know are not what we used to be and not how we became successful.
Every 10ish years they start these talks back up
We saw where they got with the last plan
Joey Who will fail just like his predecessors Bobo KT Tibbetts Juju Connolly and Action Man Arden McLean over the past 15 years. Lots of talk but very little action just more consultant reports.
And more expense to the public purse.
As a person that has visited the Brac, I would like to add that areas on the top of the Bluff that have been allocated for nice subdivisions should be protected from tacky car repair and noisy mechanic shops being next door to each other.
Placing commercial and residential areas away from each other will be a zoning challenge.
This is a great idea to plan now.
New roads should be carefully put in also.
All three islands should have a plan. The cadastral survey was a good start and zoning designations with considerations are important.
Except Plan Cayman plans to not plan for the Brac (or Little Cayman). Sorry. una can’t have nice modern things.