Fears about 7MB rise as more beach erodes
(CNS): The worsening erosion of the southern end of Seven Mile Beach is fuelling further public concern about the future of Cayman’s world famous beach and this critical tourism attraction. Earlier worries about the erosion caused by years of coastal development too close to the water, especially when sea levels are rising due to climate change, are turning to fear as the lost beach has left the sea lapping at the foundations of some properties.
The Marriott resort, several condo complexes and a number of private homes, including developer Ken Dart’s house, have now lost their beach as the once seasonal erosion appears to be permanent and the structures on their property are now also facing inundation.
Efforts by condo complex Regal Beach to try to recover its beach and protect the development has added to the public fears, which are now dominating Cayman’s local social media pages, that these efforts will make things worse and that the Cayman Islands authorities have waited too long to put a stop to the development that has caused the problem.
Over this weekend a number of local people posted footage of the situation on the stretch of what was once luxurious soft white sandy beach between Dart’s private home and the former Treasure Island resort.
Local businessman Robert Baraud posted seven minutes of footage that he recorded as he rode along the stretch on a Jet Ski documenting the extent of the beach loss and the depth of the water on what was sandy beach just a few years ago. The footage shows the alarming level of erosion and how serious the situation now is along a mile-long stretch of the coastline that until about three years ago was a full beach.
Baraud told us that he had filmed the strip of beach at the weekend for his own records. But given what he saw, he decided to post the footage on social media and he has had an overwhelming response, with hundreds of people sharing and re-posting the seven minute video.
“This is really bad for the tourist sector but everyone is impacted by this,” Baraud told CNS, as he asked what the community and the government can do about it. “We need to find a way to replenish the beach somehow,” he said, noting the memories people have of Seven Mile Beach and its fundamental importance to the local heritage.
Footage also posted by local environmental activist Rory McDonough documented the alarming inundation of the ocean into some of the condo complexes in the area, where the water has brought down stairs and crack patios and concrete sun decks. He showed the well-documented problems for the Marriott Resort, where, with the beach long gone, the sea is now washing under the foundations of its pool, sun-lounge deck bar and the restaurant’s external areas.
He also posted footage of efforts by the condo complex next door to beat back the advance of the sea with a seawall, though experts now believe that this will not help.
Meanwhile, some of the area’s newest properties, including a new condo complex and private home that were beachfront when the development began, already have water lapping at their gates even before the work is finished.
Last year experts at the Department of Environment told CNS that there was little choice for some of these buildings but to begin considering a managed retreat. The DoE had said that if the developments at the southern end of Seven Mile Beach had been built away from the active area the beach, they would have had a natural sandy ridge to provide an additional source of sand to help repair the type of sand losses seen in 2020.
But now, all of the sand reserves at the south end of Seven Mile Beach are locked away under the foundations of hard infrastructure.
Speaking to CNS Monday, a DoE spokesperson reconfirmed that position, adding that while there are many issues that have not helped the current significant deficit of sand, the main problem is the collision of climate change and beachfront development.
“There are a lot of contributing factors to the current erosion but the fundamental problem is sea level rise fuelled by climate change and poor planning decisions that have allowed hard structures on the beach,” the DoE expert stated.
It is with this issue in mind that Premier Wayne Panton has created the new Ministry of Sustainability and Climate Resiliency. Faced with rising sea levels that scientists believe is happening even faster than has previously been predicted, low lying areas like the Cayman Islands will need to build in resilience to any future development, which means the high water mark setbacks in the current planning regulation desperately need to be revised.
In the interim, if the Central Planning Authority continues to give planning permission to ocean front projects, it must if it stop waiving the existing provision and persuade developers to factor sea level rise into their plans.
But dealing with the properties now at the forefront of the problem will require what the DoE has called a “managed retreat”, as there is almost no solution that can save these properties from the sea. The technical experts believe that if Seven Mile Beach is to be given a chance to recover, the only solution is to tear down and rebuild the existing beachfront properties much further back from the ocean.
See Robert Baraud’s full seven-minute video below:
See Rory McDonough’s video of the inundation at The Palms here.
See his video of water under the Marriott here.
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Category: Climate Change, development, Local News, Science & Nature
Don’t know why anyone thinks this will hurt values…they may not be beachfront, but they are ocean front! And with one good storm coming they’ll be able to advertise private indoor pools too.
Gives new meaning to your own private island.
Mother Nature is doing her thing by shifting the sand. We had consultants write reports on this. But in case one one noticed, the sand has shifted south. The fishermans’ area and beyond is now a nice sandy beach where it used to be deep and rocky over the years.
Wonder how much that end unit is going for now. Might somehow be more affordable with the additional water features…
There is an old photo of the beach from 1945 in other media story today. One can make out the ‘Storm Berm’ or otherwise referred to as the historical storm-ridge , where storms piled sand up & the natural beach coming & going of sand over many generations was allowed to push ashore .There were a hand-full of historical hurricanes between the early 1930’s to the 1970’s that impacted Grand Cayman ( & the sister islands need no introduction here ), which would have otherwise eroded the beach for the worse, if it were not for this natural sand berm. That berm has been developed and built on now , both on 7 mile beach and in South Sound. I will remind everyone of the break-through from North Sound via Governors Harbor,( Raleigh Quay to be precise), to 7 Mile Beach during and after hurricane Ivan in 2004. A [Local] major land owner/ developer /Gadzillonairre has built on this vey location.
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rains came tumbling down
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
And the house on the rock stood firm
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rains came tumbling down
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
And the house on the sand went smash
Stay woke Cayman! While you’re at it, tear down some of the construction built too close to the beach and move it back a few hundred yards. Costly, but you might get some of your sand back. If you don’t do it, the ocean will.
Looks like Regal Beach is at risk of being inundated if we had the two storms like we did on October and November (one ironically called Hurricane Delta…).
The units in the two front buildings in Regal Beach might become unsaleable. Better plan would be to tear down the front buildings (with remaining owners compensate the removed owners), and put in a sandy area in place of the removed buildings where there will at least be a bit of a beach experience.
They won’t learn until the ocean comes and tears down their luxury apartments. I don’t wish that on anybody but Mother Nature knows no amount of wealth. If you trouble her, she will fight back. (The surfside condo should be an example. Part of that situation was the sea level. You don’t dig very long until you come upon sea water here).
The 1976 – 1980 Government SOLD OUT our islands and indeed, literally threw away the first Development Plan which called for paced and controlled development of our islands. The result is what we have today!
Caymanians who cannot afford to live in our own country; continuing runaway development; corruption in public service, Lodge control of Government, etc!
That Government was led by real estate developer and Lodge Grand Master Jim Bodden. There is only 1 member of that ExCo Cabinet alive to witness the mess they created.
How about Cayman Islands hold him responsible, at least by removing his name from our national sports complex with which he has no association and destroy his legacy!!
Also, let’s remove Jim Bodden’s statue and National Hero designation!!
PACT lets ACT!
T
Yeah, The 1976 – 1980 Government SOLD OUT our islands., and somehow it continued until 2021! Maybe things will change now…… Are you listening, Mr. Panton?
Re-check your history. Jim Bodden had nothing to do with overdevelopment or the destruction of Seven Mile Beach. Look to the subsequent administrations for that mess.
BS. He pushed the removal of the Plan. Convinced people that developers could not and should not be controlled. That idea continued.
I call total BS. You cannot blame a dead man for the actions of subsequent administrations – of which he was an OPPONENT.
I guess FACTS are hard for you to swallow.
What’s your agenda?
@5:27pm – You clearly didn’t know Jim Bodden and weren’t in these islands between 1965 and present (I was), or you don’t know FACTS. Which one? BTW, my agenda was in my post – Remove the crook as National Hero and remove his crony’s name from the stadium!
But this is my first post on this since, so seems like a LOT other people feel the same as I do!
Think it’s bad now. Wait for the first tropical storm or hurricane coming from the south that is even remotely close and runs parallel to SMB. Will make what Ivan did to South Sound look like child’s play!
I don’t think rising sea levels due to global warming are the immediate cause of what happened recently.
We have had unusually high tides for the last few days, which are both normal and cyclical.
The real issue is the loss of sand from the beaches, due to poor development planning. Ways need to be engineered to allow the sand to return to these areas.
before erosion was so eminent, these high tides were not really given a second thought.
Thanks Cap’n Obvious.
I think we ALL know that development has caused this. Rising sea levels will contribute to it, not cause it.
People knew this. People were warned about this. They just did not think it could come up that far and ‘get them’.
Instead of being an @*#hole about it…..come up with some constructive solutions!
OK. Knock down the buildings and walls, and plant natural indigenous vegetation. Bar any future development within active beach parameters. Arrest and prosecute anyone who wrongly permitted construction in breach of planning laws and regulations. Plant mangroves and green buttonwood everywhere less than two feet above sea level so they can continue to build land and keep pace with, or even move ahead of sea level increases. Ensure that nothing else is built that has a finished floor level less than 10 feet above sea level. There. Solutions. You may not like them, but that (or some iteration of it) is what has to happen.
like you then?
Whilst a lot of fingers are being pointed at ‘inadequate setbacks, vegetation lines etc. I feel a huge element is being missed with that of the increase in building height limit. Way back when the Caribbean Club was the little pink chalets, I would sit on the beach during the winter watching the NEasterly winds whip up plumes of sand moving it down the beach probably almost equivalent to what the small wave action was doing. The new high rises have stopped that and have likely also allowed the waves to continue all the way to the beach unimpeded by what would have been an offshore wind from the shoreline. For every action there’ll be an equal an opposite reaction and maybe more.
That perhaps should be studied as it appears that the construction of the multi-story Tides in S. Sound has caused Pull and be Damned Point to grow significantly in the past few years.
We don’t really seem to understand how the larger buildings might be impacting the beach.
The growth of that beach in recent years dates from Ivan. It is unrelated to the construction.
I lived in south sound and walked that beach during the construction. The sands moved because of it and the tides will be a building that falls to the environment because it shouldn’t have been.
👎🏽I feel no pity for the Caymanian elites, losing their beachfronts. They never provided or shared proper BEACH ACCESS to the local community in the first place!
I believe they are selfish and blinded by wealth! And our politicians never did a thing for the people either … Now, where is your sandy beachfront ??? God’s nature is washing it away! Ha! The rich will be made low, and the low will be made rich in due time! The wise man builds his house on the “Rock”! I am just smiling. :))
As well, there is no space for parking at these access points. I tell ya
We saw what happened to the condo building in Ft. Lauderdale. How long before it happens here?
You are so correct, and for those that don’t believe there’s a God the bible clearly states that only the fools in their hearts say there is no God, and the foolish man builds his house upon the sand, but it only takes God’s given common sense to realize what their future outcome will be,
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.
Irrelevant
You IDIOT. That condo is not on the beach! Are you really trying to compare Sunrise tragedy to beach erosion??
Thick asa brick here.
You are sadly mistaken. Rising sea levels contributed to salt laden water coming into contact with steel and concrete, causing spalling and consequential collapse.
You mean Surfside. Oh yeah. Nowhere near it.
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/80fb51c3332e432eeb51f2e4b55a681f?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2807&cropW=4989&xPos=2&yPos=263&width=862&height=485
No….. I never saw anything happen to the condo building in Ft Lauderdale. What happened?
Not Ft.Lauderdale.
Surfside is a town in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The population was 5,744 at the 2010 census. Next door construction is most probable cause of the Champlain Towers South buildings collapse.
Can’t wait to hear some of the Realty sales pitches to sell these off before they get bulldozed.
‘ Stunning sunset views , absolutely stunning beachfront , mitigation works underway ‘ .
Don’t forget “private beach” as some of them will have walls to the north and south thus protecting them from people walking by.
Then we will walk through their living rooms for access. Their unlawful construction ought be no fetter on prescriptive access rights.
There’s never been a better time to buy!
Or this timeless classic from a well-known company – ABSOLUTELY OUT OF THIS WORLD! Under the sea you mean.
You nailed it .” Magnificent, stunning, out of this world, Impeccable “.
Ring a bell ?
You know it! Loses it’s meaning when it’s every single property!
That company is posting old photos of the affected properties showing full beaches.
I guess ethics don’t matter when you have the power of two…
The ONLY solution to this is for us to have a National Day of Prayer on the steps of Parliament, led by the Hon. Speaker….. that’ll show climate change who is da BOSS!!
Yeah. And the speaker can give Mother Nature a good hard slap. He is well practiced at that.
My sarcasm detector is through the roof haha.
Lets not blame the CIG, CPA, or the GREEDY developers for the loss our sandy beaches. Let’s have the DOE arrest the local fishermen for catching more than 3 squabs/parrotfish off of the Ironshore. This is what really caused the loss of beach sand. Well it is going to take a lot of parrotfish pooh to replace what I see missing in these videos. “SAVE BARCUS FOR OUR FUTURE..OUR CHILDREN!’ 2000 Election Campaign Slogan! Already had given up on SMB.
Greed is the motto of the Cayman Islands, more is always better; more uncontrolled development, more work permits, more cars, more cheap labor, more garbage, more status grants, more corruption; it can go on and on while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Lets keep it going till there is nothing left!
We have long said “just like in the states!” Greed, corruption and ineptitude.
Those fishermen, for the most part, are not local. (Just sayin). Their fishing activities represent just another aspect of a long litany of unenforced laws and regulations. These regulatory failures are the cause of almost every problem we must now confront.
Yep 9:51, it’s all the foreigners fault, never Caymanians. Jesus wept.
now we can call it six mile beach”
It was 5.5 to start with
It’s only been 5.5 miles long for donkey years. Ask yourself why.
Five Mile Beach. It really isn’t 7 miles to begin with. More like 6, minus 1. Keep woke Cayman!
Actually, it was only ever 5.3 miles to begin with. Four Mile Beach (FMB) is probably the appropriate new name. That will of course morph into FUBARMB.
It was never seven miles in the first place.
They jumped on 7 Mile Beach as a copy name to 7 Mile Bridge, same acronym. Thought it would pull all the yanks here.
With everyone of these stories, the general sense of foreboding increases. The feeling there is a disaster on the way which will bring untold damage to our islands. What about the mangroves currently being ripped out all around the north sound ? One big storm surge and much of what is here today will be gone. You would have to be mad to invest in property close to the water.
What about the Dump?
Complete lack of foresight by all those accountable that permit these developments and the constant ripping up of mangroves.
Nature 1 Man 0
This score says it all . Now all the greedy developers and property owners who were hell bent on keeping Caymanians and other residents from ” their Seven Mile Beach “is reaping their reward. It is sad that things are ending this way and still the skeptics refuse to believe in climate change .
We have sown the wind and now as the Good Book says “We will reap the whirlwind ” Worse is yet to come when storms and hurricanes take revenge for our rape and des truction of the mangroves.
Coming up next, our human existence.
Caymanians sold this beach so stop blaming the foreigners. Caymanians approved all of the building too.
Cannot blame foreigners? Funny that. I distinctly recall a Caymanian ((Ezzard) trying to stop a foreigner (Tommy) from building Radisson (now Marriott) where it is, and should never have been. Those that decided where to put it (and told Ezzard where he could put his concerns) we’re most certainly not local.
Wait, you’re implying an expat granted themselves planning permission?!
Wake up. Your own people are allowing this to happen and are heavily involved. Even as recently as a few days ago a prominent Caymanian submitted plans to ruin Little Cayman.
You may be right as far as that is concerned, though Ezzard was the only one… Far too many Caymanians allowed this to happen. Ezzard, the greatest Premier that never was. Stay woke Cayman! Or not!
This isn’t down to climate change, please don’t conflate different issues. Also a pedantic point but it is “are” not “is” reaping their reward.
What did you do to stop it when you were given the opportunity? I’ll wait.
I cursed the greedy bastards…….. and I still do!
Conflating those of us of the opinion that this has nothing to do with climate change with those who don’t believe climate change exists is, to be charitable, disingenuous.
There was a master plan for west bay road (and elsewhere) in the 1970’s that showed no development on the water side of the road, this was quite deliberate to protect the beach and to protect development.
It was ignored. Also all buildings were to be capped at 3 levels.
Now we have 10 storey towers being built and planned all over the place, many too close to the water again. And of course they moved the road to facilitate $000 night bedrooms
We reap what we sow, I’d be interested to know how many of these properties are being insured? A lot the buildings were also constructed with beach sand, meaning the internal structures are rusting and weakening by the day. It is only a matter of time before on the 80/90’s buildings collapse.
And then there’s Fin.
What have we done?
Wholeheartedly agree with your post but I wouldn’t say we. The common man or woman had nothing to do with it!
It’s the elected officials and government departments that permitted these developments to take place while the rest of us watch in horror. Backroom meetings, expensive dinners and backscratching amongst the small circle got us here.
FIN is the icing on the cake and a perfect example of the state of the nation.
Careless tourism and over-development. Two problems that are only exceeded by the poor educational standards in the Cayman Islands.
How can any of those properties open for tourists now and charge exorbitant prices for the beach?
Let it fall into the ocean. Karma for destroying the priceless beaches.
Let’s now approve more DART beach projects. #nobody
Yeah collapsed buildings will really improve the rest of the beach.
At least it will clear the view
Of course the Marriott beach issues pre dates Darts acquisition, as does his house which he acquired from someone else, but hey let’s just blame him for everything.
So back in the 70’s it was suggested that no beach front properties should be built on the beach side of the road and all properties would be built across on the East Side of smb Road, of course Jim Bodden and other Caymanians owned the beach side and sold off to investors, thus the end of our beach.
When the Raddison was built people were up in arms and said it should be built further away from the ocean. Once completed the private home next door built a sea wall and this is when we really started to see the beach over a period start to erode away, since then others in this area have done the same and now there’s no beach.
We now should change the name from 7 MILE BEACH to 4 3/4’s!
To those that say it was foreigners who did this remember we sold our land and our planning dept and government back then approved these properties.
Personally I’d like to know if there is a solution to try repair this damage and if so please government do what you can, in fact we unfortunately or fortunately have Dart with no beach now and maybe the funds to repair.
How can you repair it? Anything done will be temporary band-aids. The only real solution is to demolish these buildings and then talk about repairing the damage. That will never happen because too much money has been invested so it’s a problem that will continue to get worse and worse. I have no faith anything will ever get fixed.
I’m skeptical Dart can remediate the dump even with his fortune, I’m skeptical this government will do anything that will protect Dart Mile Beach and I’m skeptical this island will even exist in the next 50 years due to oceans rising due to climate change.
‘To those that say it was foreigners who did this remember we sold our land and our planning dept and government back then approved these properties.’
Not just back then. FIN?
Our planning department? You mean the one staffed with foreign experts, reviewing applications prepared by foreign architects (with no local licensing), built by foreign builders, working for companies owned by foreign nationals some of which may have been relatively recently granted Caymanian status by politicians who may or may not own real estate companies which may or may not have exclusive deals and employ exclusively foreign nationals yelling “now is the time to buy” all in front of the eyes of largely foreign police officers who may not have decided to take any steps to even investigate indications of maladministration or even outright corruption.
Yeah, blame this shit show on Caymanians all you wish. It is convenient. The truth however appears much much uglier.
Al Thompson is a foreigner???
Looking at the members of the CPA over the last 20 years, shocking how many expat names have been rubber stamping all the building.
Shocking how few if any were involved in the final approval or hand deliver dodgy planning applications directly to cabinet for the same.
And Trump won the American election by a landslide and these fires in the States are caused by Jewish space lasers, right 12:57?
Companies owned by foreign nationals?! Anyone say Tides? Little Cayman?
You invalidated your argument when you mention people being granted status by politicians…you mean Caymanian politicians?!
I know the truth hurts but you need to accept that fundamentally you have been sold out and left behind by your own kind.
Fin has been developed by a prominent Caymanian along with a new Caymanian. Do your research.
This person writing above is talking about the past not today.
Let’s really take a look at who are the developers of all these beach front properties! They are a lot of caymanians owners in the back ground, who are on the planning board.
We can only blame our parents for selling our family land. It’s as simple as that.
Finally! Someone willing to accept the uncomfortable reality of the situation.
Jim Bodden died in 1987. He was also not the developer behind SMB projects. Re-check your facts. The vast majority of the damage has been done after his death. Find a new scapegoat. The corrupt governments of the 1990s were the ones who paved the way for today’s destruction when they gave in to the demands of foreign developers. XXXXX Taking kickbacks, including free property. Signed over to family members. Leases of Crown Land. And on and on and on. The real culprits are alive and well. And still pulling in the big Government bucks. Don’t pick on a dead man who can’t defend himself.
@1:37pm It seems like there is treasure trove of information hidden in the bushes that may never see the light of day…
Family member 1:37? Jim set the whole development fiasco in motion to benefit a certain real estate company run by…….J M Bodden. Bingo!
Mother Nature is the great equalizer. You can’t get away from it.
Perhaps one day, the new powers that be will listen and take what the scientists tells us is good and bad.
Maybe one day…
“If one day, my words are against science, choose science”—Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
This is awful and now they want to move to Little Cayman and destroy all that is good and untouched over there! A coastal works application for Kingston Bite for 18 over-water bungalows- not on my Queens Bottom! Notice says public can email comments to coastal.works@gov.ky by AUG 12.
Bight
In the cosmic scheme of things, why does it matter whether something is spelled correctly if you know what the person means in a comments section or during a conversation? It takes a certain kind of twat to correct another adult’s spelling or language. Some people never received proper educations or have learning disabilities, but they still care enough to be involved. Go find a real problem and comment on that.
Or their iPhone just auto-corrects and they don’t notice.
Full marks for your stellar use of twat to describe the language police. It truly is amazing how picayune people can be.
The Marriott deck. Wow that video shows some serious undermining by water. With all that erosion when will that deck be considered unsafe?
About 3 years ago….
I remember when Hadsphaltic were building the Hotel , too close to the beach. Ezzard Miller went on site to see for himself and was told to go to Hell by Tommy, the Irish foreman on site.
Ezzard even then Was not afraid to speak up .
So sad. Haven’t been down in 2 years. Breaks my heart to see this.
And another ugly cement tower going up toward treasure island. Stop the building! Stop the destruction!
The Marriott added that deck when it refurbished from being the Radisson from memory – it wasn’t there originally and there was decent beach there. That hotel pool deck and the house behind the Smurf houses were the start of this beach destruction from which lessons have not been learned and mistakes repeated.
Caymanian youth should file a lawsuit against each developer business and resident along that eroded section of beach for losses in tourism revenue at a minimum of 1,000,000,000 per square meter of eroded beach.
why not make it a billion?
They should actually sue their grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles that voted for successive governments that allowed the building to happen.
Caymanians sold land and approved the buildings so Caymanian youth can sue their families or themselves.
Will they also sue their parents and grandparents who SOLD the beachfront property???????
Will they sue their Uncles and Cousins who approved the plans?????????????
Will they elect better politicians who cannot be bought off by $ ????????????
Will we ever have leadership that cannot be bought?
That last one is really a toughie!
marriott and these places have seen their beaches come and go over many years….if ‘development’ caused the beach to go how did it ever come back???
time to look at real causes not silly populist soundbites.
first simple question:
how much have sea levels risen in cayman over the last 30-40 years???
will wiat for an answer.
Honestly, anyone who thinks like this need to attend primary school again.
If it was caused by sea level rise are we expected to believe it is just coincidence that the developments set back behind the vegetation line still have hundreds of feet of beautiful beach?
Secondly to answer your question since satellite tracking began in 1993 sea levels have risen 3mm a year.
You know sea level rise and coastal erosion are different right!? You can still lose your beach without the level of the ocean actually rising…
Populist sound bites? You make it sound it to some sort of conspiracy theory. The consensus, based on science, history, and experience is that this is what happens when you build too close to the water. Call the stork and ask him for some of your parents’ money back. He shortchanged in you in the brain cell department. Stay woke Cayman!
Oh the irony that Ken Darts backyard underwater after all his development along the shoreline
Name them.
Put back the trees that were on SMB that’s the solution.
Walls will create backsplash erosion over time and crack and break down with storms.
Not that hard to understand, but let’s make a committee about it to waste more money which is a planning issue from day one.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_rFH1ZFM40Y
Anyone on Island remember this in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Much nicer beaches there, but similar scenario unfolding in Cayman now…
Here is legislation to remedy this once and for all.
Increase all fines on all delinquent developers to modern thresholds, based on the severity of environmental impact. The longer projects remain out of compliance, increasingly larger fines are added cumulatively that must be paid in full to avoid confiscation. NO MORE WAIVERS FOR COMMERCIAL DEVELOPERS. Sales are already sufficient.
In addition to higher fines, add jail time with punitive damages per count for repeat offenders. By this point, they know exactly what they are doing. They are willing to hold us hostage at any cost or means WITH OUR OWN RESOURCES, don’t care about any consequences or if our environment is completely destroyed or not just as long as they get paid. They should be just as gracious in accepting the fines and punishments, as they do accepting the checks and funds from selling these properties (little of which funds remain in the local economy in the first place).
Make the law retroactive as far back and expansive as necessary to ensure any pirate profiteers (including shady realtors) are not missed and to deflate any foreign estates enriched by this racketeering magic “entertainment” series.
Free ball for any combination of the PACT ministers who are willing to take it on, teeth in. Teed up, ready for the swing!
Who is surprised? It’s been predicted for years. The good news is there’s now dock space on SMB!
Time to turn the hotel and these condos into low-income housing as they are now worthless.
Glad I got to enjoy seven mile beach while it lasted!
Who in their right mind would want to purchase property here? So does that mean, that the foolish men that built their houses on sand – we must all suffer to pay for their insurances too?
IMO blaming sea level rise is an excuse to deflect any blame; well there’s nothing we can do about it. Sea levels have risen 60mm or 2.5 inches in the last 20 years. Furthermore the sea has risen just as much all the way along 7 mile and strangely the stretches of beach where development was setback behind vegetation or undeveloped have faired far better. Is it not yet blindingly obvious that construction close to the high water mark does not allow wave action to replenish the beach but instead causes an undertow? More seawalls are clearly not any kind of solution. Everyone knows what needs to be done…
“Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that he can hope for is not to be defeated.”
― Alfred Lansing, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
I hope that Alden McLaughlin and his former Government and former CPA Board members and the Speaker of the House see what they have allowed to happen to the most beautiful 7 mile beach
Marriott was built around 1992 (it might have been called the Radisson back then)? Can’t blame Alden for that one!
Most of the developments on the south end of SMB are older, some very old. Dart’s pink house (formerly a hotel, West Indian Club) is very old.
I suppose no one at that time expected this much beach erosion.
The wall out front of DART’s house is not that very old, and he now appears to have a dock without a coastal work’s license!
“The most beautiful beach” USED TO BE
Imagine if they had started the pier. Criminal!
8.17pm This started with Jim Bodden not Alden yet guess who our first National hero is. If I remember correctly he was nominated as such by Mckeeva. Another thing to thank him for.
If even half the things old-timers say about Jim Bodden are true there should be a mob pulling down his statue to throw it in the harbour…
They’re not true. He is dead and cannot defend himself. Look to the Governments of the 1990s and onward for the real destruction.
Stop maligning a dead man’s name. The true culprits are still alive. The Radisson (present day Marriott) was built in the late 1980s/early 1990s – Jim Bodden died in 1988. He was a backbench Opposition member at that time. The damage was spearheaded by others XXXXX.
Jim Bodden set the whole development train in motion @1:43. Coincidentally (not) he ran a real estate company.
I believe there are many, many other islands in the world with much, much more scenic beauty and much more beautiful beaches cradled under ridges or by itself. I have personally seen way more beautiful and scenic beaches in the US, in Jamiaca, in Thailand and my travel history is fairly short. I think glorifying the 7 mile beyond what it is doesn’t serve any good purpose. And quite frankly how much beach is left there anyway? it’s an illusion that perhaps only serves national pride without much real justification – imho
Saw a photoshopped image of Seven Mile Beach this morning on Travel & Leisure magazine billing it as one of the 15 best beaches in the Caribbean. Mount Trashmore had been erased and there appeared to be a beach where now there are various sea walls adjacent to waist high water. Who is submitting these faked old images to the magazine, CITA? They need to come clean and stop hoodwinking prospective visitors.
The situation only stands to worsen with many of these sea walls and properties being undermined by wave reflection. Greed and ignorance has finally hit home and there is no easy, economically feasible, environmentally sound and aesthetically pleasing solution.
This also begs the question whether or not this stark change in high water mark is also partially due to sea level rise. I guess we’ll never know that since our authorities and real estate people don’t want to know and don’t care as long as the money keeps rolling in.
This is called false and misleading advertisement. In the US is it’s regulated by Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair and deceptive acts or practice in commerce.
I think its just an old photo…. lol.
Looks good guys. You get what you pay for!
A lot of you still think that pride is your biggest problem? I don’t see hundreds of comments about disappearing beach as of yet. Here is where you can channel your thoughts and prayers. Something broken to be fixed. Here is something constructive to do.
You have to get rid of the sea walls, or lose the beach!
Exactly 7.51.
If you do not allow waves to dissipate energy in a natural way, the wave will always win.
And seagrapes, coco plum and red birch need to be put back. No development of any kind should be permitted within 25 feet of any activity beach. Bastards did this. It was intentional, for a quick buck. Anyone who dared stop to think knew this would be the result.
CIG/CPA/DOE watcha gonna do about this?!
You were warned this would happen and you didn’t listen – all of our seafarers, captains, our old Caymanians, the divemasters told you, Bob Soto, Capt Jackson, Billy Adam, Conseulo – they all told you.
The CPA that recently got replaced & all those that came before – look at this, look what you allowed to happen on your watch.
I hope unna hanging your heads in shame. You did this. You.
It’s quite obvious the Marriott, regal beach and similar south smb properties clearly broke the rules and will never get their beach back as they built too close. You don’t see these issues at the ritz, Westin, kimpton, Carib club etc. the south smb people that ignored the terms of their planning years ago should be made to pay.
Yet. You don’t see these issues yet.
Wrong. Radisson (Marriott) was built with plenty of set back, back when it was built. IN the 90’s their beach was huge.
It is the seawalls near them of the other properties that has done the damage. Marriott merely tried to mitigate it once it started encroaching their beach. So you couldn’t really blame them for trying to save their pool and deck areas.
However, now seeing this, maybe it would have been better to cut their losses and remove it completely. Doubt it would have saved the beach though, because of the other nearby seawalls…
All I can say it I am glad I was here in the hay days. That beach has saved my life so many times. It is my church..
It won’t be long – before all of these buildings collapse into the ocean.
One can only wish.
Damn most of them. Locals tried to stop many of these developments that were plainly being built too close and with no regard for nature, and seemingly less regard for our planning rules – even then. Seawalls on an active beach? WTF? Do our esteemed planning professionals that granted the “waivers” still have jobs? Did they even realize the importance of the words “natural vegetation line?”
Cayman, this is what happens when your “robust law enforcers” do nothing, and your “leaders” sell real estate “on the side.”
Planning approved this development? Hahhahaha
Good, hope it all collapses
Too bad for Mr Dart as his company is the biggest brute on the block.
Just bring in some sand from somewhere that has nice sand. Problem solved.
Millions and millions of tons of sand would be needed.
“some sand”? A million tonnes should do it. For a few years.
Cancun did just that.
or equally as smart……just bail out the water!
You cannot be serious… all I can do is laugh at your comment otherwise I’d cry!
And that’s the kind of thinking that gets us into these problems.
If your lungs stop working, someone will just give you oxygen. Problem solved.
Gottcha!