Old house highlights heritage failures
(CNS): The question of what to do with an old traditional Cayman house on land owned by Foster’s supermarket has highlighted the lack of protection for local heritage. Woody Foster appeared before the Central Planning Authority on Wednesday and said that a national conversation was needed about protecting culturally significant land or property in the future. Facing a public uproar about an old West Bay home that will need to be moved to make way for the expansion of the district store, Foster said that getting angry with him wasn’t going to solve the problem.
During the CPA meeting, he put forward a number of solutions about the old ‘Miss Cassie’ house and confirmed that it would not be demolished but said that it would need to move. Outlining efforts made to date to save the house, he said he had reached out to the National Trust but at the time they did not have the money. He approached Dart but the company said it wasn’t interested.
It wasn’t until demolishing it was looking like the only option that an adjoining landowner stepped up and asked if he could move the house to East End.
Explaining the options, Foster said he believed the best solution was to allow that heritage enthusiast to take the house to an area just past Frank Sound, as he had already moved and worked on several old time homes. Foster said his neighbour wanted to rehabilitate the house, which has already lost much of its original features and had numerous bits added on.
The other option was to keep the house on the site, but it would then need to move to the back or front of the current parcel. Foster explained that there was no way it could stay in its current location because it was not possible to design the entire project around it.
Keeping the house on site would also mean it could not be used because it would have to be closed up. Foster said that the supermarket could not take on the liability of people going inside or the cost of renovation.
But he said his main reason for wanting to talk to the CPA was because this was an emotive issue and he understood that it was a concern for the community. But time and again the question of how we protect Caymanian heritage is not being answered, he said, and by the time things get to the planning stage, it’s too late.
“Shame on us as a country,” he said, as he noted the lack of any legal protections or funding in place to deal with the built history of the islands. Foster said that planning needed to introduce formal heritage overlays which state clearly the properties that need to be preserved.
There is currently no legal obligation for Foster to save or move the house and he does not require permission to demolish it, only to move it to another site. But he said that he was not some “big time developer” who was passing through hoping to make some money. He lives here and cares about the heritage, he said.
Foster said he was thinking about the future and the growth of West Bay by expanding the supermarket but the country also needed to think about how we deal with local heritage in future.
The site has already lost one old Cayman house as the owner moved it when Foster’s bought the land around fifteen years ago and there are several more in the area that are being preserved by the current owners but without any legal protections, he noted, and we can only hope it stays that way.
Foster said the arguments in the community about what obligations landowners have to preserve old properties will continue until we have proper laws in place.
He urged the new CPA to take advantage of the current administration’s willingness to put protections in place and make sustainability a central policy. He said he wanted to find a suitable solution for the old house on his land but this situation would repeat itself again and again without any meaningful laws. Trying to tackle the question of historic preservation at the planning stage was too late, he said.
However, the last minute attention to the house has actually triggered a response and Foster is willing to delay the project to find the best solution. A number of factors are now at play that could see the house kept on the site close to its original location, renovated and preserved.
When Foster’s bought the land the national Trust did not have the money to help but it is now involved in the effort to save the house. It has launched a historic preservation fund and is in discussions with government about legislation to protect this and other historic properties.
Foster also told CNS that his own efforts to reach out to government about the house have also finally paid off as Minister Andre Ebanks, the MP for the area, has responded. He is now expected to meet with Foster along with Culture Minister Bernie Bush to discuss how to fund keeping the house on the site or moving it to Frank Sound.
The supermarket boss has made it clear that he wants to preserve the house, either in situ or to move it to an appropriate place where it can be protected. But he said that Foster’s is a supermarket and not in the museum business. While he is happy to give up some of the car park to keep the house on the site, it still needs funding to make it anything more than a lifeless monument.
Foster told CNS that he is really glad the community cares and he understands the public backlash about what we are losing, but he said the anger was misplaced because he cares, too. He said he wanted to see a national conversation to resolve this issue so we don’t lose any more sites, but preservation needs money, resources and relevant expertise. He asked people to focus their anger on government and urge them to put the necessary laws in place.
“Don’t get angry at us,” he said. “That has no value.”
The CPA has not yet made a decision on the planning application for the expansion of Foster’s Republix, but when asked by the chairman about the time it would take to sort out the house, Foster said that, given COVID-19, the cost of construction materials and the delays in the supply chain, there was time to find a solution.
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Category: Community, development, Local News
What about the Public Right of Way that cuts right through Foster’s Driveway and into Boggy Sand Rd?
Just because its now overgrown doesnt deny its existence.
Grow up, it can be relocated..
Why is it that all these Caymanian complainers can’t get together and save one thing themselves? Do I have to say it?
There’s another one now just back from abroad, wants to know how to start an “extinction rebellion group”.
Give me a break, the traffic is bad enough without these people blocking our roads to make some silly point.
How soon we forget. What did anyone do when Jim Bodden knocked down the old fort building which was next door to the north terminal?
What they did, Mr Johnson ( many of them) was deny he did it or say he was provoked blah blah. Then, for many years, extending to the present day, whenever the knocking down of the fort was mentioned in the media it was always “ a local real estate developer”. His name was not mentioned because of course he eventually, shamefully, became our first national hero, with a statue not far from the scene of his infamy. It gets worse. There is a photo of him actually driving the backhoe doing the demolition. It was printed in the old days in the Norwester. But you hardly ever see it now…because he is our Hero….and because of that I have heard people claim he was not actually responsible for the demolition. It would be interesting to know if CNS, a comparatively recent media outlet, has access to that photo.
CNS: No, we don’t. Presumably it can be found in back copies of the Norwester, which can be scanned. But that is now history, and as a news outlet, we really haven’t felt the need. It may be a worthwhile project for anyone who wants to write about the history of the Cayman Islands, though.
Sadly no one seems to care about the history of Cayman and its residents mostly have short term memories. The Compass has hard copies going back to predecessor news media such as the Tradewinds and I believe the library may have all the Northwester magazines which were well ediidered by Jim Graves, rather than Seales who got the MBE from Jim , who in turn wrote of the debt due from Prospect Properties to the Northwaeter. . Seales also did similar creative accounting. You could not make this up.
May I suggest the National Museum take up the cause and file it in archives in order we all know our history. The CIG can allocate funds. And bring on board Loxley Banks a guru of our history.
While I believe that Cayman heritage needs to be preserved, I would say a big thank you still to Woody Foster.
Why? because he actually tried to find solutions and then went to the CPA
He didn’t do the usual practice of demolishing the house, building the carpark and then asking for restropective permission from the CPA.
That was even a Cayman Hero’s preferred method. Cayman would still have its old fort in GT, rather than some ground level walls and a hut on a stick!
So thank you Mr. Foster for going through the proper process.
Leave that house alone!!! It’s history. If other countries can preserve certain historical buildings, why can’t Cayman? There’s almost nothing left here from the past and it’s so sad.
As someone born in this millennium, how long do you expect Cayman to remain like 1960?
Let go of the past. Time waits for no man.
History is important and must be remembered. That is how we learn of past mistakes. If we did this then perhaps planning could have done a far better job as well as consecutive governments.
Jim Bodden may have knocked down the fort but he did foresee the need for a highway from George Town going north, where the current bypass is. I recall it was turned down by the subsequent government. This is just one of many mistakes.
So many of Cayman’s sensitive Heritage and cultural and historical sites has been sold off and destroyed already by successive governments who give great lip service about things Caymanian but do absolutely nothing about the dire and destructive situation. There is a very small handful of people who still contribute to this valiant effort and i am yet to see their names and nominations for various royal titles and awards or on boards all we see is the same old recycled political pundits and pariahs of society being elevated to god like status here in Cayman. How truly sad for place built and established by seamen and local and foreign pioneers who made Cayman their home.
so nominate them yourself
The minister for culture and heritage is doing absolutely nothing it’s in his district,leaving it to his two totally out of touch Franz lackeys to pick their family and friends to sit on the various boards and committees and trust Not one single solitary persons who cares or contributes to the preservation of such things is ever appointed or encouraged to do so! it’s really really sad for these little islands . No worries they will get their reserved parking spot in the new lot that you can be assured of ?
So basically they are doing the same thing as all the other Caymanians on the island. It would seem that clearly no one really cares about their great heritage but they know enough not to say it and of course find someone other than themselves to blame for it.
Regardless of all the sides or views to this matter, I can’t see why the house has to be razed for only 8 parking lots. I know the site, they can get more than 8 parking spaces without going anywhere near the house. If it is/was to be demolished, it is/was not for a few parking spaces! Some other expansion!
Genuine question. When was the last time a Foster, a Kirkconnell, an Eden, a Walton, a Ritch, a Watler, a McTaggart, a Parsons, a Merren, a Coe, a Bush, a Hurlston, a …. served on the CPA with any interest in heritage and environment? The only name that comes to my mind is Mr Tommy Bodden.
A better question is: When was the last time they were asked to serve in that capacity.
Yes, Mr. Tommy Bodden and also Mr. Rex Miller and Mr. David Arch are three names that come to my mind. I believe they are now all former members of the CPA.
Errrrr…ALThompson…?
I thought the names you mention own watermark and watercolors?
Genuine question: what is your last name and founding heritage to the Islands? If you have a founding family, why would you be so ignorant? And, regardless of who you are, you’re lucky that people like me have bigger and better things to do in life than lay hands on you. You mentioned my family name and clearly don’t have the slightest clue what my family has done for this Island and we and I are continuing to do. So, watch your mouth. And if you have a problem and want to do something about it, let me know where you want to meet up. You ignorant fool.
Wow okay anonymous tough guy LOL
A little cranky today ? If you have bigger & better things to do, why are you wasting your valuable time posting here ?
You should be careful who you pick fights with tough guy.
Whilst there are some stellar characters within that group of names you mentioned some do think it is their god given right to pillage and plunder. The environment that is. I personally know of two cases where big family names were allowed to just carry on in the face of gross and sustained pollution of the environment by their operations.
The law still needs equal application regardless of who ya for and what your forefathers have done and stood for in Cayman. The government and it’s Authorities are still biased and mostly scared by this founding fathers drivel that they have become impotent in bringing appropriate penalties to bear on offenders.
Government has drastically cut it’s funding to the National Trust, they need to restore it, instead of spending money on encouraging more cruise ships.
““Shame on us as a country,” he said, as he noted the lack of any legal protections or funding in place to deal with the built history of the islands. Foster said that planning needed to introduce formal heritage overlays which state clearly the properties that need to be preserved.”
The house needs protection from YOU, Woody! What is this nonsense, defraying the blame to the nation for not keeping heritage houses safe from you? Don’t you have enough? Of everything, Woody?
Woody is a good man. He will know who I am. I doubt very seriously that this house can be moved even a short distance and still be a functioning structure. The fault is in acquiring properties that have existing historic features and paying them no mind. It’s not like this house was covered in Cockspur and just was uncovered.
I think it is disingenuous to act as if the house is just now a “thing”. What was the original plan? Get it passed through CPA and then bulldoze it.
We have lost our tether to our heritage. That’s not to say that every old building needs preserving, but do we really need more asphalt? Does everyone need to drive to Foster’s, or should we put the public funds into bike paths?
We are suffering from a lack of vision and short-sightedness. We need leadership with vision. Toward that end, we should demolish the party system. How else can we promulgate legislation that lasts beyond the next election and the anticipated change in government?
Clap clap clap clap clap THIS!! I felt exactly the same reading this spin of “concern”. They care only about themselves. As a Caymanian of West Bay, I am disgusted that they even bought this house with one singular self-serving purpose: destroy it to make more money and give our community another eye-soar of asphalt. What a lack of conscience and being disconnected from the Cayman reality. I have come to discover the greed and disingenuous selfish reality of FFF and their leadership. It was not always like that. I would bet that if they could operate in Cayman without Caymanians they would be just as satisfied. I hope their competition opens soon. I’d much rather not spend my money with a company that has leadership that demonstrates their disdain for me as a caymanian with such flippant disregard. They lost their way: the late senior Mr Foster, the original visionary (God bless his soul)understood the blessing Cayman was to him and his family and he had respect for that reality.
The National Trust legislation (bye-laws 2015 revision) contain at section 10 provisions for the Trust to establish a National Heritage Register, to which the Trust can add properties which are of national significance and worthy of preservation. The Trust can also designate properties as National Landmarks if they are found to possess national significance to our heritage.
Unfortunately however, neither of these provisions makes the slightest difference to planning decisions. The Trust could declare any property a heritage asset and a national landmark as much as they like, and CPA need not take a blind bit of notice.
It gets worse. Unless the Trust happens to own an adjoining property, it wouldn’t even have the right to make any submissions to the CPA hearing which decides whether to knock a National Landmark down.
Our planning laws are woefully, disgracefully inadequate. The system has been designed and run purely for the benefit of developers and the mighty dollar, with lip service (at best) being paid to conservation, heritage or our environment.
Shame on all of us.
Can’t tell if Woody is being genuine or not. If he really cared why was demolishing the site a thought in the first place. Again, not sure. But sure do hope he means what he said.
If he wasn’t genuine we wouldn’t be talking about this as it would have been razed long time. Enough with all the keyboard warrior nonsense. If you don’t think Woody cares about this island’s culture then you haven’t been paying attention.
Oh we have been paying attention: eyes wide open. Community stores with less than ONE handful of Caymanians.
Then go get a job there. Take others from your family to get one as well. Increase the number of Caymanians working in said industry.
I am confident that you can do the work, but will you?
Of course he cares, but relocating a structure that old is going to be very difficult.
Why don’t the usual tree huggers (who object to everything) step up and arrange relocation.
Too expensive you say..? Too difficult ? Got nowhere to place it..?
Exactly ,
The Foster family has a social conscience I know , but they are running a business , not a charity.
That closing says everything we already know. Tell us something we don’t know.
That opening says everything we all already know. Except you of course.
The reason we’re having this debate at all is because there are already laws on the books that guide the CPA to protect the home in its place. It’s unfortunate there’s no legal authority on the CPA that can give advice to the board on the legal implications that already exist.