Rezone will increase pressure on 7M Public Beach
(CNS): Parliament has voted to rezone several parcels of land by Seven Mile Public Beach that will allow for ten-storey development and ultimately increase the pressure on one of only a handful of remaining places where people can still freely access Seven Mile Beach. The site of the RBS Coutts Building and Trafalgar Place is now likely to be demolished and replaced by a ten-storey hotel after the owners were successful in their rezoning application, which will significantly increase the value of their land.
The rezoned land is located just across the road from the Seven Mile Public Beach, east of the Harbour Heights Condos and opposite the construction site of the Hotel Indigo, Dart’s second hotel in the area.
The application to rezone these parcels from Neighbourhood-Commercial to Hotel-Tourism was made by Trafalgar Investments Ltd back in 2020. At the time the Department of Environment urged those involved to consider the number of tourists and local people using this already limited area of beach prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The increased tourism footfall should be taken into account at this stage in order to plan for the sustainable use of the area whilst ensuring it does not undermine the purpose of the public beach as an area for the enjoyment of members of the public,” the DoE stated in its submissions about the re-zone application.
Since then the application has gone through a review process, including a 60-day public notification and consultation period. A notice of the pending change to the parcel was advertised in the Caymanian Times on four occasions between 11 and 20 November 2020, with that public consultation closing on 19 January 2021.
According to documents laid in parliament this week by Planning Minister Jay Ebanks, no objections were received so the CPA considered the application again in February last year and then resolved to forward the application to the planning ministry for Cabinet consideration.
More than 18 months later, Cabinet agreed to allow the rezone to go before parliament in accordance with section 10(2)(b) of the Development and Planning Law (2017 Revision). It was presented by Ebanks, who justified the change by pointing to precedent in the area and the need to support hotels and tourism. There was no debate and no discussion on the impact this decision will now have on Seven Mile Public Beach.
Alongside the existing condos, the new ten-story Watermark and Hotel Indigo, both under construction and due to open next year, as well as the mixed-use development at The Grove, which has also begun work on phase 2, all within a stone’s throw of this new proposed development, will leave the beach under unprecedented strain.
There has been growing public criticism about the limited access the public has to these types of planning decisions. Even when proposed amendments are advertised, the method of public consultation, the limited circulation of the notices and the labelling of sites through blocks and parcels rather than familiar descriptions all act to dampen public engagement in the rezoning of areas that often end up having a significant public impact.
See the details of the re-zone below:
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Category: development, Local News, Policy, Politics
re advertising in the Caymanian Times. The newspaper is free to the public. So it actually has the lowest barrier to the public receiving the advertised notices of the two newspapers (in which you have to advertise to meet the requirements of the law, requirements put in years ago or based on thinking that old from when physical newspapers were the way to public notices).
If people are really upset by the newspaper requirement then they should suggest what is a suitable alternative. Like how business participation adds now have to go on a gov.t website.
Cayman Times is not free. Fifty cents please.
I would like to know why it is that the parking lot at this public breach is 80% occupied by the construction workers from the nearby work sites every day of the week?
How is that helpful to residents and visitors? Why do the authorities allow this?
Yes exactly!!! Get these cars out of there!!!
Because Kenny’s public transport system is shite?
Are there adequate fire trucks capable of evacuating people in 10 story buildings? Or even 5 story?
Yes, the shiny trucks can be capably steered to the destination, then what? Fire dept doesn’t pressure test and sticker commercial suppression systems at the interval required under adopted Fire Code standards. We just have to keep hoping everything will work when it needs to, or that test day never comes.
I don’t think fire trucks can access the elevators in 10 story buildings.
In terms of beach influx, I’m not sure a two story, mostly vacant studio apartment Grove compares directly with 4x 10 story multi-bed hotel/condos within 500 feet of each other, but hey.
PACT showing true colors … it was only a matter of time.
Makes the PPM look like amateurs when it comes to controversial political plays. The chickens are coming home to roost and when the eggs are counted years from now, we will likely in retrospect look on this PACT tenure as a disaster.
And Cayman Water Company is stil operating without a current licence. Their licence expired years ago. Both PPM and PACT have done nothing to sort this mess. All this is disclosed on SEC filings….
Sort out infrastructure please.
And I bet Health City operates without being certified for radiation safety. By the way, Radiation safety regulations don’t exist in Cayman. Who is The Radiation Safety Officer in HC? In HSA hospital? What about numerous radiology services? Who monitors radioactive waste disposal?
Not a problem for Cayman Water, have you seen the rising price of their publicly traded stock? Their investors are not concerned and neither it appears is the hard working and trusty regulator!
10 storey building is a great landmark for the illegal Cubans to help find their way.
I’d worry more about the drug canoes
This is privately owned property and owners should be allowed to develop, within reason. Other properties in the vicinity (Indigo, Kimpton, Watermark etc) are 10 stories so this decision is consistent with others.
Typical CNS whiners: the vocal minority.
DARTBOT wakes up agian!
Joebot you mean
3 hotel overpasses now in the strip.
NONE Allow pedestrian use from outside.
Not even for their own staff so often running across the road with carts etc.
Would you expect any better from someone who made their fortune from unstainable oil?
Build it taller and wider. All that was is gone anyway. I’ll make my money of these Caymanians and retire back to Canada or Central America.
For crying out loud, too much hotels will mean too much people cramming the beach ! There won’t be no room for locals !!
we’re already outnumbered, i fear..
Research the ownership history of the large parcel of land directly behind the public beach.
Thank you IP business is booming now!
If Kenny can put illegal billboards wherever he wants, Uncle Joe can build a hotel.
I guess Minister Jay win that argument in caucus! Wayne your leadership is a joke. What exactly does PACT stand for ? You have no vision, depth or even a plan. You cry foul about the overdevelopment on SMB then sit back and allow these changes to happen so your rich developer friends can profit from the overdevelopment of SMB.
You all thought that Wayne was for us? He had one ambition ” to become Premier” , well sir you have done that so hobble back where you came from. Now that the PACK has kissed and made up you will see the ministers all go hog- crazy and destroy what little is left. I hope once they start fixing the dump they will leave a space and enough rubble for us to build a huge monument in their honour.
Well….there is one saying- “when you lie to the government, it’s a crime, when the government lies to you its called politics”.
How can this be approved when we are waiting on a new “Development Plan”? When is that coming out for public consultation?
When pigs start flying
It will be published after Vision 2008 is finished being implemented
What do you mean “after Vision 2008 is finished being implemented”? I hope that you are being sarcastic because Implementation of Vision 2008 never began. If you are being sarcastic, then I can agree with you because we can be sure that it will not happen.
I was being sarcastic but it’s also very sad. Before 2008 there was still hope.
Everything PACT said the wouldn’t do
PACT of liars
Funny, just a few years ago when some property owners opposed the Grove development we were portrayed as rich NIMBYS. How times have changed. Glad I left then. Karma is a b***h.
…and yet here you are hanging out on CNS. Tragic.
As is you, 11:17 am !!!!
You are.
No, you are
Great environment agenda Wayne. Again, PACT shows its true colors. What a bunch of spineless, inexperienced fools. So instead of getting a proper national development plan that can create a path to true sustainable development, we get these haphazard, piece meal pieces of legislation that do nothing more than add to the concrete clutter.
Please, what will it take to demonstrate this PACT government will run the country into the ground. We need to go to the polls now. Call an early election.
The CPA should require the proposed zoning change to the posted on a bill board on the actual site for a period of several months. This is done in other jurisdictions.
At the end of the day we can again thank the man, the legend, McKeeva Bush who approved the Ritz which started the ball rolling. For all the complaints about foreign developers and their impact on Cayman, this one Caymanian has done more damage than all of them.
I have never blamed foreigners for the destruction of seven mile beach and other places, all the arbitrary decisions, all the breaking of the planning laws, all the do as “I please” and screw what the natives say. The blame lies squarely on the “Caymanians” who elect these uneducated dumbass greedy corrupted idiots and sit back and watch them destroy this “Little 2×4 Rock” we call home. As far as I am aware no foreigners are allowed to run for election!! Don’t blame the foreigners, blame the many stupid Caymanians politicians who have sold out their own children and grandchildren’s legacy and raked in all they can get “under the table” for themselves. So many just sit back and accept a stove, a few cement blocks, some fill, some lumber whenever a hurricane is approaching, a turkey at Christmas while our homeland is being raped and destroyed with their permission. The few who pushed back on these decision are always demoralized and sidelined for doing so.
Facts
I believe the alleged cost for rezoning was established by fax a few years ago.
I’d be packing already… Life on this rock won’t last much longer…With worldwide economic crisis, cost of energy, political instability there won’t be resources…Yet, they believe more development is needed.
I used to leave the city and travel to relax on an island (GC). Now, my last trip down (since covid), I leave the city and feel like I have arrived in another city. High rise building surround the beach strip, unbelievable traffic, and the island just seemed congested. No longer quaint. Where did island life go?
No Government is better than the next one! None! So when people stop voting quietly and start rioting and protesting on all beaches – I hope those in power will be okay with that scene.
Private oceanfront owners, make sure and note that we are going to occupy the beaches that God blessed the people of these islands with. PERIOD. I don’t care how much security, fences, chairs or Karen-ness you can concoct!
The beach is mine! Yours! OURS! Stop coming here and building on every piece of land, talking about how friendly the locals are, then kicking them off ‘your’ property.
And, this entire CPA needs a clean sweep! EVERY ONE GOTS TO GO!
Who owns the land? That’ll probably tell you all you need to know.
joe
This article brings the scripture to mind.
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
I must say, over the years, it was been wonderful to witness the support given to the Caymanian people by their money-grubbing, church-building, politically-connected, selfish pastors.
May the whole lot of them get the rewards they so richly deserve. It was exactly the same in the days of Jesus.
Well if anyone was hoping PACT so called Government was any better than UDP, PPM. PACT meaning, piece of Cayman trash. You all who voted them in getting what you all deserve noting being done to protect Caymanians or what little natural surrounderings Cayman has left, greed and money. All I do is laugh and laugh some more. Seems no one cares about what can happen. It will only take 1 major category 4 or 5 hurricane to teach you all money greedy people a lesson. Seems Ivan 18 year anniversary hasnt taught you all anything. Reminder see what 12 to 18 feet storm surge of water can do, watch the news. Makes building and expensive vehicles look like a war zona as if a bomb went off. Mother Nature can be 1 very cruel reminder, that when you don’t follow right, wrong is done to fix it. Keep ignorning Mother Nature Cayman time soon come again. Been to long since Ivan, then you all will see who will leave and come back when it’s all pretty again. Remember PACT Caymanians have no where else to call home. Happy to say I didn’t waste my vote. My voters id card picture looks good though.
the government and cpa is a joke.
Wayne Panton I’m speechless. so are you apparently. this is incredible. sustainable, environmental. you are gutless. Is this what you thought being Premier was going to be like?
who the blank is Trafalgar Investments? Name names. sick of the anonymity XXXXX. Make them pay offsets to the people for getting the $20+ million dollar windfall.
Joe Imparato. Not really a secret.
It was a great slogan for tourism – “The Islands Time Forgot”, sadly we have now become – The Islands like Miami Beach”. Can we guess at how these developers get exactly what they wanted from Cabinet and Parliament without even any debate?. Yet another sad day for Cayman.
No we are the best island that money can buy!
Cayman doesn’t even look like an island anymore. Not from the air, not from the sea and definitely not from land. Traffic, construction,congestion, cement.
There are 2 other Cayman Islands, one that the Grand Cayman government has forgotten about and one thankfully still feels like Time Forgot, hopefully Dart will keep it that way.
By Dart, you of course mean Schilling.
Not when generational Caymanians are busy carving it all up alongside Dart and Schilling.
It’s stunning the faith some people will put in the vague expectation, not even a promise, that such will do the right thing.
Not saying I agree with it but the government set their sail a while back. If you grant other developers 10 stories on bigger parcels at Dart’s Indigo and the other guy (forget his name, he did Watercolors) gets 10 stories opposite for Watermark, then this one should get the same.
Except that that area was zoned already as such where 10-storey buildings were not allowed. Cabinet and subsequently Parliament (albeit minus the opposition who took a stand on the shenanigans concerning PACT and its spineless acquiescence to Mac’s whim and fancies) made the decision to rezone. Rezone. REZONE. An active change in legislation to allow 10-storey buildings in an area where it WASN”T previously allowed.
Shameful PACT. You make a decision to rezone in the absence of a credible National Development Plan that you have intimated won’t be done anytime soon. We hope to see the back of you in short order.
And for what it’s worth, no one voted in PACT. We couldn’t have because we had no idea about these behind your back alliances. People voted in single member constituency representatives – our current parliamentarians. PACT was forced upon us in the wake of the vote, after ballots were cast and counted and we had no clear majority. So again, please call an early election and this time everyone must PUBLICLY declare their alliances so we know who is teaming up with whom, and subsequently where our vote is going when it comes time to form a government.
No more lies and wools pulled over the electorate’s eyes. Please, at this stage, do the right thing and call an election so the people can make their voices made heard loud and clear with no room for dead of the night horse-trading. We have a Westminster system style of government which lends itself to the party system, which in effect takes care of the blight that has been thrusted on us. This is NOT democracy in play currently. Call an election. We can’t chose the caliber of people who run for election, but at the very least we should know exactly how our vote is being used once the ballot count is over.
Call an early election.
Looky there, Imparato wins again. How does the Caymanian Times with its daily circulation in the dozens, count as a public notice vehicle?
7:14 pm Because it complies with the Law
Which was enacted by the persons elected by those eligible to vote.
If people still can’t see that Public Beach is going to be taken away once completely surrounded by these new buildings they are putting up, you are mentally challenged, which is exactly what the Govt and Developers think of us.
“going to be”? – why do you think Govt did nothing about the beach vendors situation? you sure that land is still Crown/public? I have a feeling its simply sitting in trust awaiting transfer of ‘title’ as part of some deal with a certain developer….
In 2015 SMB was voted the beach in the world.
Voted by people who have never been here, most likely.
I doubt that rating seriously. I personally know of beaches in Australia that are 4 x times longer than Grand Cayman in entirety, with pristine sand, shoreline & no development.
I would agree they are all that but with the Australian Box Jellyfish in those waters – all you can do is look at the water.
Doubt anyone will ever develop those beaches until they find a way to eradicate that deadly creature.
I don’t really understand your argument 7:35, are you saying it was a sham consensus and so it doesn’t really matter if we f*** it up anyway 🤷🏻♀️
It is truly one of the beaches of all time
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Caymiami here we come. Thank the non-existent lord I’m leaving.
🎶 Concrete Jungle….the animals are after me…🎶
No heart. Don’t belong here. Bye.
Back to Canada, eh?
The Specials – “Concrete Jungle” – 2 Tone Classic…..Rude Boys Rule!
I grew up in Coventry and I can assure you that Cayman is nothing like Coventry city centre in the 80s! I know where I would rather live, new hotel development or not.
For all the gullible fools who thought the Panton-PACTless Clown Car would be a great change because you blamed Alden for being in bed with big developers;
For all the gullible fools who thought Wayne PACTless Panton would be a staunch protector against over-development and would be a true friend of the environment;
For all the gullible fools who thought that they were voting for change:
This!
All you gullible fools got for your votes was another band of pimps prostituting the island and its environment and going for the high rollers and their high rises.
Tek dat all ye gullible fools!
Tek dat!
alden still in bed w developers tho
They advertised in the caymanian times!! If that doesn’t show you the disdain the developers have for us all, nothing will
They advertise there because nobody reads it
The laws should be changed – all notices should be advertised on all live radio stations, newspapers, online websites etc
Then see what happens..otherwise, why bother being upset when the rules are allowed to be played like this and the planning boards have no problem
Problem is the same. government should take out some strategic Eletronic billboards, cricket square, ALT round about etc and every cancerous Canadian, American and South African developer should be made to put it on those billboards. Can’t hide it then.
Costs very little, achieves big audience.
Imagine a government funded electronic board “This (insert picture of some driftwood imported status holding Canadian) person wants to build X and Y across your ancestral land, vote A or B, appeal now.
Seems pretty simple. But then again, the Jamaicans in government would have to take their hands out of the cookie jar.
How exactly did the (insert xenophobic identifier) end up with “ancestral” lands you ask?
Billboards on the roads- do we not have enough accidents as it us?
Exactly. All jobs now have to be advertised on a platform that is accessible to all. Planning applications should be required to do the same.
sustainable Responsible Development, another fable that Wayne wrote
On his fake news social media platform. Expected more?
One would also have to assume CUC will need to increase their output to meet the demand of multiple high-rise developments, which will mean enhancement of current diesel fueled generation plant & equipment.
Desalination Water infrastructure & sewage/wastewater
treatment, in addition.
Yup, buying CUC shares and moving to South Sound.
yeah – and who pays for all that again?
Not the developers that is for sure
“Caymanians” screwing Caymanians. Most definitely!!
McBeater wins again!
Don’t blame the politicians, blame the population for being naïve and uneducated.
I blame the politicians! They are the ones that are allowing the destruction of our places to live! It’s all about money!!!
Well….it’s not like those in charge have improved the educational system for years…..
Mr. Premier what happened to the sustainability and environment security you promised???
Who are all these hotels and condos for? Can’t even fill the existing ones. Why keep building more?
What planet are you living on? All the SMB developments are selling out. Who’s buying them? Crypto people who are moving here in droves and the usual rich people who want a second, third or fourth home on the beach.
But they don’t live in them. Drive by at night & those condos and hotels in darkness.
Just keep making the 7MB strip taller, more concrete , more congested and more ugly. Cayman island vibe long gone.
Wayne the environmentalist seems to be asleep at the wheel.
Go to public beach on a Sunday and see how much you like it now.
Loads of Jamaicans peddling their crap? think i’d rather not. At least Aruba has the Aloe man, we just have the crack head status granted morons that sit around drinking 345 by the “fish market” that was never a fish market until once again, the 3rd world idiots turned up and squatted on it.
Sad thing is that Mac, Kenneth, Saunders, Jay and Seymour are happy to surround themselves , (and inflict on the rest of us) , their Jamaican compatriots , and watch them ruin Cayman, like they effed up their own country.
Like Hellshire Beach but with more Jamaicans.
Can someone, in government, please answer the following question:
1. Who are we developing for?
2. Who will ultimately benefit, short or long term, from the ‘overdevelopment’?
3. Will the future generations of this country be better or worst off due to this ‘overdevelopmet’?
It must be obvious to anyone that increased foot traffic will push more sand down into the sea thereby speeding up beach erosion.
……..
Get real. ‘Foot traffic’ is not the problem. It is development too close to the water, and Caymanian councils that allow developers to build below the high water mark edge. This is commonly known. ‘Foot traffic…?’ You are really uninformed, as typical for Cayman.
Let me help you with this:
1. Who are we developing for?
Answer: The people of the Cayman Islands who will have to rely increasingly on HNW-oriented tourism products to sustain the economic base required of an island that has historically enjoyed high GDP generated from jurisdictional arbitrage now irreversibly in decline.
2. Who will ultimately benefit, short or long term, from the ‘over-development’?
Answer: ‘Over-development’ will have to become the life-blood of this a sought-after destination for Tri-State HNW families looking to spend their vacation dollars in a relatively safe and time-zone-friendly Caribbean jurisdiction.
3. Will the future generations of this country be better or worse off due to this ‘over-development’?
Answer: Better off if Caymanians learn to embrace the HNW-serving hospitality industry and the jobs and spin-off economic opportunities in related services such as local and international logistics, food and beverage, condo and guestroom maintenance etc. Failure to do so will necessitate the importation of hospitality-aware Asians to carry out the service work required of a successful HNW-serving hospitality economy, weakening the local economic base and resulting in financial distress within the Caymanian community- which will absolutely be worse off!
There is no alternative, people. Stopping the development of hotels, condos and the infrastructure of a viable hospitality industry will do a disservice to the Islands’ economy in the absence of any other revenue-generating economic sector with the result of a massive contraction of real GDP which will cause financial hardship to all Caymanians irrespective of socio-economic station.
Good post from a tax lawyer (above), if true, Government should be clear about the potential decline of the FS sector so people can plan their lives. Doing our Caymanians a disservice by 1) encouraging them to study in the UK, another tax structuring jurisdiction which will suffer greatly from the new frameworks 2) not allowing them to retool to work in other financial centers.
feeling the global companies will take the best with them but what about the next generation?
Ironically you inversely answered the question by it not answering the question, it’s all for the HNW then 🙄
Caymanians screwing Caymanians; not in the least surprising.
Yea, welcome to paradise… With an underbelly of corruption;… corrupt politicians, corrupt officials in the civil service, corrupt officials in the police force, corrupt officials in the immigration office, corrupt officials in the … ‘fill in the blank’ – they all are apt for this territory that is ill equipted to govern its near future.
Sad, but true. That is what our territory has descended into. Very sad that nobody in power will come to the front to protect us. We are lost.
#pactsustainability