Over-water resort planned for Little Cayman

(CNS): Developers have submitted an application to the Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Development Control Board for Cayman’s first ever over-water bungalow resort, which they want to build on Little Cayman. According to drawings available online by architect John Doak, owners of the land currently home to the Kingston Bight Beach Bar off Guy Banks Road on the southern side of the island want to build a resort with several two- and three-bedroom land cottages and 18 single-unit bungalows on stilts over the water that would span out from a 450ft dock.

Little Cayman is the least developed of the three islands and many people have been hoping it will stay that way. As a result, the project is already generating opposition from local environmentalists.

Plans for the project, which appear to have been filed relatively recently, show a restaurant, bar, spa and swimming pool, as well as a golf cart and jogging trail on a 3.3-acre site.

The application will also need a coastal works licence because the plans appear to show concrete pillars in the ocean holding up the bungalows some eight feet over the sea. That licence will need to be approved by Cabinet and must be made through the Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency. Cabinet will then decide whether or not to approve the licence following submissions from the Department of Environment’s technical experts.

The Little Cayman Boutique Resort would be the first resort of its kind here. While other island nations have allowed these type of resorts, so far Cayman has not seen such an application. If the project is given the green light, it could be a precedent setting approval, paving the way for more of these projects, even in the face of climate change and the threat of rising sea levels.

The plans show few details about the owners and developers but can be viewed on the planning website here.