Dozens object to $125M Crystal Harbour hotel project
(CNS): A planning application for a major hotel and residential project in Crystal Harbour has generated dozens of objections from residents in the wealthy gated community. An application by Land Ltd (Silverfin) for the Prisma Project will be heard by the Central Planning Authority on Wednesday.
The $125 million mixed-use development comprises a nine-storey 44-room hotel, 58 apartments, 20 townhouses, five duplexes and various amenities, including a canal extension. It is described by the developers as a step in the “evolution of Crystal Harbour”, but residents believe it’s a step too far.
The seven and a half acre site on Crighton Drive (Block 17A, Parcels 145, 146, and 170) is located across from the Holiday Inn hotel, but residents have said they believe the scale of this proposed project is incompatible with their community and insensitive to their quiet family neighbourhood, which is made up largely of single homes with nothing in the area exceeding three stories.
The developers, who were the original developers of Crystal Harbour, have asked for a number of variances to setbacks in relation to planning rules, including setbacks from the roads and canals for a variety of reasons.
Dozens of objectors have written to planning outlining a catalogue of issues about the proposed project, many of which relate to these variances and what the nearby landowners claim are deviations from planning regulations and concerns that the project plans are incomplete. The objectors also lay out a number of more emotive concerns about the effect this development would have on their quality of life.
A number of issues have also been raised by the Department of Environment that undertook a screening exercise on behalf of the National Conservation Council. Despite the size of the project, the DoE found that an environmental impact assessment was not required. But it still identified several issues relating to the project that will need to be addressed.
From an ecological perspective, the DoE said the site no longer has much value, as the mangroves that once covered the site have been previously removed and the site filled.
The department’s main concern was the impact the project would have on the marine environment and the water quality of the canals, which “contain seagrass beds, benthic algae and marine species which rely on these important habitats”.
The DoE also raised questions about the extension of the canal, which will add further water volume towards the end of a ‘deadend’ canal system that may have implications for water quality due to inadequate water movement and flushing.
With a proposal to excavated a 12ft canal, the experts warn that this could be too deep to allow sufficient ambient light to reach the canal seafloor, preventing the establishment of marine plants and algae that could help with water quality.
“Given the massing of boating facilities, marinas and theoretical number of boats proposed for this small area of canal there is a potential for boating related pollution to further exacerbate poor water quality,” the DoE warned, pointing out that this will need to be addressed
The DoE also discussed the wider implications of a development of this scale and recommended a hotel screening assessment. The department also questioned where this project fits with updated tourism policies and Cayman’s overall development goals.
Meanwhile, the applicants claim the project fits in with the future tourism needs of the Cayman Islands by offering a boutique hotel that will attract a new kind of “international traveller” and the entire Prisma project will enhance the Crystal Harbour community.
See the application and the objections on the CPA agenda in the CNS Library (scroll down to ‘Prisma’)
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Category: development, Local News
So glad I didn’t build my home there, after viewing the original plans from day one for Crystal Harbor. It is clear that subdivisions are no longer immune from high rises being approved next to them. Look at Canal Point and Grand Harbor, pristine subdivisions now lost their charm.
It’s zoned for a hotel, it’s right opposite a hotel and someone has applied to build a hotel on it. If you buy a house next to a hotel zone you a) get it at a discount and b) have to expect a hotel to be built on it. Can’t understand the grounds for an objection. None of the houses round there are even in keeping with one another.
The opposite hotel is 3 stories and isn’t built right up to the roadway nor canal. It also doesn’t have a marina that affects many single family homes with water traffic.
CPA going to having nightmares about this one.
Either keep the developers sweet, like they have been doing for years, or upset a whole bunch of lawyers, accountants and the other types that live in Crystal Harbour.
Tough call. I would say the residents have the deepest collective pockets but the developers could have an MLA ace up their sleeve to exert the type of pressure to which they are now well accustomed. We watch with anticipation!
Why does everyone think accountants can afford Crystal Harbour? Myself and the majority of accountants I know live in Townhouses in south sound or Georgetown. We are not multi-millionaires.
Love how the application says that tourist are moving to “smaller, more intimate properties “. And the clients Prisma will attract are “seeking smaller properties “. Yet Prisma would like to build 5-7 buildings up to 9 stories, plus duplexes, plus townhouses in an area where even the hotel opposite is 3 stories.
Laughable.
They are destroying the exact thing their target client desires.
Maybe Crystal Harbour is the wrong place to build a hotel, but 75% of the land mass on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac is undeveloped with plans and lots of room to build many hotels and attractions if it is planned and managed properly
Keep in mind that most people have forgotten that the Sammy’s Airport Inn, the Hyatt, Seaview Hotel, Victoria House, Indies Suites and other hotels have all permanently closed since Ivan and we’ve lost hotel rooms in our hotel room stock.
Not only have we lost hotel rooms, but we’ve also lost many jobs with those hotels that has those unemployed people who lost jobs actively seeking jobs along with 900 to 1,000 high school graduates that graduated each year since Ivan
Look out NAU, cause the common narrow minded trend indicate that we are headed for a Welfare State while permanent legal and corporate jobs on island is being outsourced overseas
https://www.flexjobs.com/jobs
Maybe we should just follow Daubi and introduce a 9% Corporate Tax from now, to be able to deal with the expected Welfare cost
There’s already a hotel directly opposite the site for the new one and has been there longer than most of the houses.
And so many more hotels have been built since then that added to the room stock.
No sympathy here for these environmental hypocrites. Let dem build that $%@! right there ! Bon appetite right place right time CPA Please do the Right thing for Once!
Don’t worry Jay Mckeeva Ebanks will save us.
What are the NIMBY’s incessantly whining about now? of course not in their backyard.How dare someone interrupt their opulent palaces of tranquility So now we must band together to preserve their precious Manmade marl covered mangrove Graveyard.These are the very same hypocrites who think or thought absolutely nothing about deriving benefit from destroying areas with precious ecosystems so they can live well. All whilst looking down their noses and telling themselves they are exempt pioneers of development and investment. Sitting on panels and committees with blood on their hands and dispensing their destructive advice to other like minded environmental pirates . Yes Cayman of course all whilst behind their protective gates and moats away from the have nots. I say build that $#@% right Deh! They already destroyed it.
I feel this is a bait and switch by Dale Crichton. Selling the lots of Crystal Harbour for a residential neighbourhood. Kids on bikes on the streets, etc. And now after the lots are sold, propose a 9 storey hotel!!!!??? He should be ashamed of himself.
No. Dart now has the freehold for all of Safehaven which includes the road around the golf course known as Safehaven Drive.
8:50 am Sir Humphrey, what on earth does Dart’s ownership of the road have to do with this application?
Perhaps you should look at a map and see where Safehaven Drive is in relation to the proposed development.
It is called traffic, however, transportation planning is not a high point for the CIG when decisions are taken in relation to traffic flow. Just look at the new developments around the Hurleys Roundabout.
4:15 pm Sir Humphrey you didn’t answer the question. How does Dart’s ownership of the road have anything to do with this?
5:40, Because Dart has every right to put up gates and prevent access on their road. This would mean that all traffic would be forced to go through the public narrow Pinehurst Road which leads to ET Highway.
12:07 pm Sir Humphrey. No Dart does NOT have “every right to put up gates and prevent access” to Crystal Harbour. There are legally registered easements giving Crystal Harbour access over the roads.
He who owns a private road controls the access and traffic. Simple as that.
5:03 pm You better stay in Sarasota then Steve because you know squat about private roads. Just because you own a road doesn’t mean you can illegally block or prevent access to those who have registered legal rights to use it.
5:02 pm You better stay in Sarasota then Steve because you know squat about private roads. Just because you own a road doesn’t mean you can illegally block or prevent access to those who have registered legal rights to use it.
5:02 am Why should Dale be ashamed of himself. The land in question, like the land where the Holiday Inn is located, has been zoned HOTEL/TOURISM since the subdivision was developed. Therefore anyone buying in the subdivision should have known that.
FIN.
Fix the dump first
😂🤣. Classic case of “not in my backyard”. The residents of this community are some of the same people responsible for unauthorized mangrove removal or gaining planning permission for areas like Barkers Park/Beach but are unhappy someone wants to put commercial developments in “their” community.
Hopefully the CPA do what they usually do and approve this one too 😂
The rich eating the rich. Glorious!
What? Do you know how many people live in this neighbourhood? Why do you say they are responsible for unauthorized mangrove removal? This is a residential neighbourhood. Not the place for a 9 story hotel building.
Where were you when Rex Crighton cleared out the mangroves in the 1980’s, a little too late .
Mr. Premier I welcome your thoughts. Obviously, your political platform was built on the foundation of saving the environment. So far everything submitted have been approved.
Where is a mention of what a barren wasteland that site is? As bad as “the Keys” near Rum Point that has been totally vacant for years.
Best place to put a development this size – out of sight, out of mind. Houses down there are practically sitting on top of each other already – never understood that, if you’ve got that much money surely you’d by 3 or 4 lots so you can have some privacy. But why would you give a job this size to such a junior architect? Don’t think his last few projects have turned out too well, lots of amateur mistakes, ordering doors the wrong size, things like that… Oh well, how are the NIMBYs going to handle this I wonder. Time to get out the popcorn.
Who is paying for the project? Why would they be confident that this will be Michael Ryan’s first profitable project. Does the Lutheran Foundation have enough money left?
What fools the people of this country are. From the looks of it there will be double the amount of development in the next year and all those promises made by the PACT ‘Independents’ were nothing but hot air to get them elected. Between the three 20 story towers in GT and the 8 new large hotels being built – with zero improvements to roads, sewer, schools and infrastructure this place is screwed. I can hardly wait to here the PACT spin on their new attitude toward developing every inch of this country. Ministry of sustainability? HA – what a joke.
Who the heck is coming? The projection for this year is 40% and even that is not going to be met. All those people going elsewhere are falling in love with new islands who are offering great rates, are less expensive, have more beach and have more to do.
What in the “artist’s rendering” accompanying the story did the artist render?
It looks like the current aerial view from Google maps, and it does not appear that you chose the correct picture.
CNS: It’s a bit hard to see but it does have the proposed buildings on the site marked. If you go to the agenda here, on page 186 you can see enlarged sections.
I say build a 60 story hotel. Lots rooms for waste. Wonder if I could get a tax right off for income lost?
And I say build a triple decker highway also. Will need that for the 3,000 more vehicles that will be imported
I wonder if Government will ever say enough is enough, no more hotels/condos , Cayman have enought ? I wonder if they will cap it off at 100,000 or 200,000 or how many people getting status ?
This island really starting to look UGLY. Island charm long gone.
Presume your comment was very much “ tongue in cheek “……….
Cayman Gone
https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2022/01/cayman-foreign-investors-identity-crisis/
We can have an ego contest to see who can build the tallest – Dart, Schilling, Ryan/Crighton or some dark horse. Just think of the economic impact. We’ll all get rich with the trickle down they will promise!
Of course! These philanthropists shall be our saviours! Hahaha. Vultures
Write off.
NIMBY’s with money… and time on their hands… they usually get their way! Let’s see how this one plays out.
When the good burghers of expatistan are presented with the kind of sh*t sandwich the rest of us are force-fed, they suddenly become picky-eaters.
Probably a bait & switch scheme anyway, but cannot think of a better place for it, Crystal Harbour already being the neighborhood that taste & style forgot, no matter how much money is thrown at it.
Rich eating the rich. Glorious!
Lost. I loved this island once, as did my family. We should put up a monument in Heroes Square — a flat one with bronze coconut palms — to lament the open beaches which we once enjoyed and to which visitors once flocked. There could be a bronze plaque which told of our history, way back when we weren’t overbuilt with overburdened roads and high rises.
Yes, that’s right. I, and many of us, want NO more hotels or high-rises. We have enough. More than enough.
i think you would love cayman brac….not many others do…but you probably would
I wonder if Government will ever say enough is enough, no more hotels/condos , Cayman have enought ? I wonder if they will cap it off at 100,000 or 200,000 or how many people getting status ?
1:32 pm, I agree with you 100 %, Cayman doesn’t need anymore Hotels/Condos. But I don’t agree with you that it doesn’t matter how long people have lived in these Islands. If it was not people living and building up these Islands before you came,it would not have been anything for you to come to. God bless.
I used to love when meat patties were $1. Now they aren’t, but then I don’t really care much for the kind of patties they make these days anyway. Times change, my friend, and not always for the better. But I do like the fact I can buy milk now that hasn’t been frozen and that I can call overseas to talk with family without paying a fortune.
Everyone knows this will get approved. Objections are just a formality. CPA will rubber stamp all variances and plans for developers. And the government will give concessions. And even if CPA does not allow, the developers will do it anyway with no consequences.
Meanwhile the average man struggles with no variances waived, no government concessions and planning failing anything for most minute reason.
This exclude all objections outside a 1,000 ft radius although the increased boat traffic from the massive marina will affect all the waterways from Lalique to Prisma as this is the only way out to the sound.
It also affects all houses that face that direction in the entire development as it was now seem like you are living in a concrete jungle as it takes over the skyline. Gone will be the upscale residential neighborhood
There is a new outlet shown on the photo
Where? Through Holiday Inn? What plan are you looking at?
Tough one for the CPA. Michael Ryan and cronies involved yet lots of wealthy lawyers etc. protesting! Who do they bow down to on this one!? They’ll probably suggest moving the hotel to a conservation area of something.
Barkers park is open for new development now.
Never understood the attraction of Crystal Harbour. Doesn’t matter how nice a house you build, there’s nothing you could do about the eyesore someone builds next to it and there are plenty of those. Weird strata. I assume it must have very weak/no covenants?
not to mention how close you are to your neighbor. Magnified if you are unfortunate enough to live so far back and need to travel at 3 mph due to all the speedbumps
Not to mention the destruction a hurricane can do. I recall seeing the insides of house out in the canal after Ivan. And the sea walls are crap.
Those sea walls are collapsing if there is another Ivan.
I think you saw this everywhere on the island?
Awww those poor rich ppl, crying now when it will affect them. Well CPA here is where you do what you do best! Don’t deny the project now cause its rich folks crying instead of common folk who’s cries are never heard. Whats good for one is good for all! Approve it ASAP!
when they wanted to move the new dump to BT, the little people of BT got their way, their cries WERE HEARD and blocked it, even though they are happy to dump their trash in GT.
Sounds familiar doesn’t it, it all depends, not if people are rich, but if people are “Caymanian” as always.
The little people meaning the voters who would make sure that whoever was responsible for the dump being moved got voted out?
I get your point but this particular argument is about CPA approving any and everything with little regard for the consequences what ever they might be. Two totally separate arguments, nice try though. Big developments have taken over nice places and was approved despite the cries of the regular folk. Kimpton is the first that jumps to mind.
Crystal Harbour – built on what was once mangroves.
People who now live in Crystal Harbour – Protect the environment.
Hypocrites
11:11, you are spot on. Only two weekends ago, I saw one of Cayman’s biggest eco warriors at a steak house eating the same size steak as me.
I had to chuckle at them for their hypocrisy, knowing very well that cattle farming is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases.
Yet there she was, living her best life in the Caymans…
On top of that, her family lives in an exclusive neighborhood which was once mangroves!!!! Oh the hypocrisy is thick in some areas of this island.
I think its a beautiful development in the best area. I cannot think of a better place to put a hotel than right in the middle of a residential neighbourhood.
I think this is exactly what Cayman needs, hopefully it helps out the poor real estate agents with some more inventory since i know they have been really struggling recently.
/s
Another development by the same people as the Fin block in South Church street, AGAIN asking for variances..!!
Land not big enough for you..?
Planning regulations don’t apply to you..?
CPA stick to the Law..!!!
As it is Planning Inspections have become an unattainable service! Seems inspectors have been quitting because they won’t work under one supervisor who kisses up to who counts but treats others like crap. Even the contractors can’t stand this guy who obviously hates anyone who builds. Total lack of customer service! To the Planning Board, do something about this now!
you should only be allowed to object if you live in a tree house….and drive a tesla.
More cars for me to hit with my golf ball going through the golf course. Lovely!
LOL!!
I would check if they have a legal easement going through the gold course!
10:13 am There is definitely legal access to Crystal Harbour over the 2 roads around the golf course
Rejecting a hotel but happily living in so close to their neighbor they could steal a potato from their dinner plate.
What happened the last time they let Mike Ryan and Dale Crighton get away with a few variances here and there? Please tell me there’ll be strip club lights on Prisma too….
Where you hear ‘not in keeping with our neighborhood’ you can swap that with ‘please let us sell our homes before you build this in my back yard’ !!!
this quote springs to mind” Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie
Same developers as the monstrosity on South Church Street………
The project plans in the Appendix to the planning meeting agenda (see link in the story to the CNS library) actually look really good.
All homeowners at Crystal Harbour will of course object to anything put on that land. Some of the arguments against are weak, strawman points. Everyone in Crystal Harbour lives on unnatural, dredged canals, so the hypocrisy of these homeowners is laughable.
Thanks for your input Mike. Cleaned up the seabed by FIN yet? Didn’t think so.
The architects are pretty decent at design, but their client list includes some of the worst of the worst.
Who is the architect.?
Likely the most overrated one on island who designs leaky roofs but has great connections. Anyone? Anyone?
9:30, Yeah nothing nicer than to have a 9 storey hotel built a block or 2 from your new residential house.
You must be a real estate agent or a developer who does not live in the neighborhood because anybody else with that type of thinking must be brain dead.
Michael Ryan again
Dale Crighton too. The Fin dynamic duo at it again
What could possibly go wrong?
Did he pay CIG the funds owed from the Ritz?
I don’t think so.
Mac’s wife did get some real estate commissions though. After all, she was THE leading realtor of that era. And Mac ended up with a couple of condos. And the governor grinned. And the commissioner of police said the crime situation was stable. And the attorney general said the status grants were lawful.
Why the hell are those Europeans putting us on black lists!!!! They must be racist!!!
09 @ 2:02pm – You framed it….without even expanding to the other feeders at the trough!! Absolutely!
Nope, and won’t have to
This is one of the development hazards of retaining a Hotel Tourism Zoning within a Residential Community. There are too many of these lurking zoning dichotomies right now. Echoes of PPM/UDP past.
Well we have UDP now, wether you like it or not.
Riddle me this:
The hotel will have a bar.
Bar’s must be open to the general public.
The community is gated.
Access to the bar will be prohibited.
Tear down those gates Mr Panton!
Uh, the bar will be open to the public staying at the hotel.
Dumbo, That would be a private bar
You can already go to the Holiday Inn bar…
That part of the community is not gated.
09 @ 9:13am – Riddler, I bet that hotel bar won’t be for the “general public”.
Then its liquor license will have been improperly granted.
Gated communities are for complete snobs. This island doesn’t have a crime rate like Johannesburg or other cities with walled enclaves. So CPA, please grant all applications and turn your usual blind eye to all the fiddles that the builders will employ. Suck it up NIMBYs!
That part of Crystal Harbour is not gated.
Nothing to stop Dart gating their Safehaven area.
5:05 pm Yes there is….a little thing called a registered legal easement allowing Crystal Harbour land owners access over the golf course roads.
Approved!
Signed: Central Planning Authority
Maybe not, this one affects rich people.
Rich people who have just had built in the last 3 years 4, 5, 6 million dollar homes.
They are about to see their value drop because who wants to live down the road from a 9 storey hotel with lots of traffic.
Do wonder if Dart has signed off on Safehaven Road access which will become very busy. Lots of golf balls will be hitting vehicles.
Does anyone know?
Crown land. Leasehold
No. Dart now has the freehold for all of Safehaven which includes the road around the golf course known as Safehaven Drive.