West Bay loses another traditional home
(CNS): Althea Powell’s House, believed to be the first family home built on the beach side of Boggy Sand Road in West Bay, has been bulldozed to make way for yet more development in an area that has already lost most of the old-time homes that gave rise to its historic zoning. The house may have been about 150 years old, as no one is sure exactly when it was built.
The small wattle and daub cottage built on ironwood stilts was listed on the National Trust’s historic register, which says that it was home to Joseph Hydes, who, along with his wife Agnes (née Parsons), raised a family of nine children in it.
Despite the historic importance of the traditional home, planning permission was not required to demolish it, only a demolition permit, which is largely concerned with safety issues. An application to subdivide the site was made some time ago but there have been no recent planning applications and it’s not clear what the current owners, Bronte Development, plan to do with the property.
A Department of Environment spokesperson told CNS that they have concerns about the demolition, not just because of the loss of the built heritage but because the bulldozing took place adjacent to critical turtle nesting habitat. “We have a lot of turtle nests hatching right now,” they said. “Driving heavy equipment on the beach is one of our number one threats to our sea turtle nests.”
Although there are no known nests on that site right now, several turtles have attempted to nest there this season, and the DoE is urging people to check with them before doing this type of work. “Landowners should contact us before driving heavy equipment on the beach to check for nests to avoid accidentally crushing or disturbing a nest or the hatchlings,” the DoE said.
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Category: Local News
Obviously the land owner isn’t alive and perhaps left a will to be administered….. wonder who the Exectors are!
Wills are public records…. dig a tad deeper!
Perhaps instead of merely lamenting the destruction of the dwindling number of old derelict traditional buildings, we ought to implement building and planning regulations that require new buildings to adhere to some form of aesthetic that is representative of Cayman’s traditional architectural style (allowing for modern construction/materials). In time this would enhance the character of the island. Right now we have a hodge-podge anything goes approach to architecture, and as a result some real monstrosities gracing our coastline in particular.
Cayman is Kaput too much third world immigrants now running it to ground ! Sad such a beautiful place is now gone !
More hate filled attacks against expats who have made the Cayman Islands their home. This time over a derelict wooden shack.
So sad.
You talk about the destruction of Cayman culture.
I’ve lived in these beautiful islands for over 40 years.
On the one hand it’s sad to see the concrete along 7 mile beach.
On the other hand the average Caymanian today has a far higher standard of living than their grandparents.
Go ahead. Ask your children if they’d like a wooden top in exchange for their PlayStation.
Or to live without air conditioning and electricity.
Or to drink water collected in a cistern after it has run off the roofs.
Or to be bought up by their mother because dad goes to sea for months every year.
We have a lot to be happy about.
It’s tough for young people to buy a home. I note that Stamp Duty has been reduced or eliminated for first time buyers. Good.
Can I suggest the removal of import duty on construction materials, not for luxury condos but for ordinary homes sold to Caymanians.
Can I suggest down payment assistance for qualified buyers?
We should also have government paid scholarships to allow Caymanian students to study overseas.
The dislikes on this make no sense at all.
People who are unhappy with the state of their life need something/someone to blame and ex-pats are the perfect target specifically Jamaicans; nevermind that if you go to any country and intentionally hire from the lower class you would get the same results.
No reason to hate immigration just increase the tax on home ownership. Introduce stamp duty tax on an annual basis, no reason for immigrants to purchase a property to get PR, just force them to pay over raw $$$ to the Government. As it is, PR for a $500,000 property investment really means your just giving it away because they’ve put in a one time 7.5 % stamp duty vs 19% annual boy what a misprice and…. then CIG has to find a solution to it’s unaffordability issue e.g. build more low income homes. This only fuels construction and land prices whereas, they will still likely pay $$ to get it (PR), likely the difference between the current 18% tax burden ( see OECD report CI tax rate) and the top line income rate of say 37% you find across other OECD countries at similar income brackets. That difference could be used for a slew of Caymanians and Residents development programmes so may even be able to bring down the cost of living or increase productivity (such as an all island above ground monorail). That would increase the desirability of obtaining CI PR (e.g. to get down to the 18% tax level).
Govt should put a clause to slow or stop forigners purchasing raw land in the Islands, or place a tax on any property/properties owned yearly. Cost of land has exploded here in these Cayman Islands since the Realtors invaded and government gets a onetime 7.5%, for each sale, I imagine that overseas developers are rubbing their hands with glee as they build and sell their fantastic development/s for millions; maybe they should be placing a certain percentage of the gain to assist in homes for indigent persons if not taxed
Because they mentioned expats making this place their home. Xenophobic trigger fingers alerted.
A little honesty would go a long way. Most Expats barged their way in thru a political ploy in 2004. A grand experiment that has been failing ever since. Most came in with no intent of ever integrating or truly defining themselves as Caymanian in the truest sense. It was only for the financial gain that can be extracted from this economy with no thought or consideration that there were native people here before them.
Don’t think xenophobic is the word used to describe locals trying to save their own culture against the invasion of a multitude of foreigners who all have different ideas to evolve the host society to their preference.
Please do not use words that some people do not understand.
@4:03>>>
Solution: Get educated. Highlight the word in question and do a search.
One should not have to dumb down a comment to accommodate laggards.
Interesting perspective with us versus our “ancestors”. Guess you are admitting there is such thing as a generational/indigenous/established Caymanian. In reference to longevity, it’s amazing that 19th century Caymanians with the hard scrabble life they carved out from a largely agrarian society lived so long. Octogenarians and Centenarians were common. Hence the local term long live-er’s.
Yet with the high standard of living in modern Cayman Islands, people hardly seem to make it past 65. And even if they do, they don’t enjoy a quality life in their older years.
If we had a real vision, if we only had examples of other Islands development (sarcasm) a Planning Dept. and governments / citizens with any interest in “long term planning”, we would have likely implemented laws where the land could be leased long term but not sold off to the highest (usually foreign) buyer.
Think – other stories on these pages speak to gridlocked traffic, public transport “discussions”, spending millions to replenish beaches (in large part due to building structures too close to the sea – and the fault of both the developer and the governments for allowing it). But guess who will pay for dumping millions of dollars’ worth of sand on the beach – to be washed out to sea during the next good Norwester. Another crazy example is the Planning Board spending millions to fight the Dept. of Environment by going to Court several times now, and now again going to the Privy Counsil to fight DoE to allow a foreign developer to build a structure literally in the sea and on the beach! I had hoped the new Board and Chairman of the Planning Board might do things differently to benefit the Island and its people but it’s now as bad or worse!
Cost of living and minimum wage “studies and discussions”.
There are many more examples, but you get the point! And the current government (like many past governments) are seemingly completely impotent to make meaningful and sensible decisions!
Why didn’t the Government buy it! What a lost opportunity. Shame of them.
Preach! Saunders gone, Dwayne gone, just need that Jay gone and then just maybe we can steady the ship.
If we get Jay off the ship then it will right itself.
If you drive up the same road 2 house before end on left you will see the family sold their old Caymanian home and the person that bought it built around the old Caymanians house. That person is the kind of person Cayman needs here not these Johnny come lately and wants everything to be torn down. Ms. Althea is not settled her grave good and it gone. But until this thing we call GOVERNMENT change it LAWS and put a restriction on coming here to buy land or houses to get points for PR/Status then it will never change. All they can do is fight in the house and flip flop. Change the Law and restrict who can buy land here now GOVERNMENT and stop giving away Cayman be like BERMUDA you come to work there on a permit you take a bus and no purchasing of any property there. CAYMANIANS got enough of this now and we need to start protecting for change!
You can’t restore heritage once lost; it can only be protected by enlightened powers of government. We don’t seem to have any of that in supply.
Agree 4:37 pm, ‘enlightened’ that what we need. We destroyed the jewel of the Caribbean.
As a former resident of Boggy Sand Road and regular visitor to the area; Ms. Althea’s “cottage” had been abandoned since she built her new home in the mid-1980s. The old wattle and daub cottage had been ravaged by Hurricanes Gilbert & Ivan and rot. There was little viable to no structure left….nothing to preserve.
Her new home was a modern concrete structure, no particular historical value there.
Yes deteriorated but Nothing to save? According to who? It’s sad how we like to create memorials to seafarers but happy to destroy where they came from.
exactly – so what is all the fuss about a derelict run down structure
don’t bring honesty and facts into this!!!!
I’m glad everyone is concerned about Caymanian heritage and culture being wiped off the face of the island because of over development.
Well all is not lost. Check out
http://www.fairweather.ky which is the last Caymanian built sailing schooner still floating in the world, and she’s coming home next year as a educational, cultural and historical not for profit
project. If you want to assist, check out our website.
They taking
our people
our culture
our land
our island and turning it into a city
No one is talking up
No one is protesting
Sad for our future Caymanians
They arent taking. They are buying what Caymanians sell them.
1) the national trust has no jurisdiction or right to create any list.
2) they made this list just by driving around and naming anything they thought looked old.
3) if these are so important why not build funds to keep buying these properties for protection from development.
The National Trust most certainly has both the right and the jurisdiction to ‘create a list’- its mandate to do so is enshrined in s.4 of the National Trust Law which is the ‘preservation of the historic, natural and maritime heritage of the Islands through the preservation of areas, sites, buildings, structures and objects of historic or cultural significance’ and is further empowered to ‘identify, investigate, classify, protect and preserve any place, building, area of beauty, or of historic, cultural or environmental significance and to create and maintain a Heritage Register thereof’.
Unlike the National Trust of the UK, whose legal mandate allowed substantial tax relief for donors of places of historical or cultural significance, the National Trust of the Cayman Islands has in what is essentially a tax-free environment, no equivalent financial incentive to offer. Attempts to incentivise the donation of heritage-sensitive ‘artifacts’ to the National Trust by way of transfer duty relief, have fallen on deaf governmental ears…
Without adequate funding, the only way the National Trust can meet its mandate under law is to maintain its Register of Historical Sites and to raise public awareness of the continual loss of historic and cultural artifacts.
Under the ‘Plan Cayman’ initiative to modernise development management and control in the Cayman Islands, the National Trust is to be a referral agency for input on planning applications made for property within designated historically-sensitive precincts such as Boggy Sands Road- this initiative was effectively dismantled by the environmentally-aware PACT government.
Apart from the Trust’s legal mandate to protect historically sensitive sites from destruction, there is no other legal protection of these sites. We will continue to lose these artefacts until they are properly protected- but don’t blame the National Trust for this loss!
NT, beware. Do not accept any role in vetting planning applications without, 1. a substantial budget, and 2. a Privy Council direction to the CPA to act constitutionally and in good faith.
Agree – National Trust has plenty of property for buildings such as this. Perhaps one of their founding members, the MP for CBW/LC could donate some of his vast resources to such causes
Sod the house, I’m far more concerned with the turtles.
Caymanians are being pushed out of the Island.
The Gentrification process has taken root in our Islands.
We’re also selling our land willingly..
Who’s pushing Caymanians out? Did this person’s family HAVE to sell? Does anyone? If they did, could they not have enquired with local families whether they would be interested in buying? Or is it a case of simply going with the highest bidder (who will ALWAYS be a developer looking to maximize value)? I am Caymanian and want the best for my people however, don’t purposely shoot yourself in the foot then play victim. Place is becoming a crapshow but we did it to ourselves.
I just sold a property, it was a hassle but it went to a first time local buyer. We can pay lip service as much as we want but at the end of the day it is our actions that make a difference.
As property owner, you decide whether to sell and who you sell to. If you get pushed out of the island it’s because you wanted it.
2.48 Fake Caymanian. Most of the Caymanians sold for need; its foreigners selling for greed.
Not quite. I’m merely holding a mirror up and reflecting. There’s work to be done and a big first step is acknowledging the true problem. You’re not ready for that yet as it’s far easier to blame foreigners and say there’s “nothing I can do”.
There’s nothing fake about me or what was said. Sometimes the truth is painful but there’s that victim mentality again — Caymanians sold for need, foreigners for greed —
This should really be obvious to all but a foreigner would not possess land to be able to sell ‘for greed’ if a Caymanian didn’t first sell it to him. Your reasons for selling are no one’s business but your own however, once you’ve sold, you’ve sold. There are consequences and we’re living it now.
Buddy you are so wrong. The expats are buying up the property which is inflating the costs to own and live on the island. I have no land but might have to sell my right kidney just to keep the lights on and food on the table. I don’t blame the developer or the seller, I blame our greedy politicians. They screwed us over for couple of units at the Ritz!
As long as we have someone else to blame, all is not lost (sarcasm).
I’ve said so many times you (expat or otherwise) CANNOT buy something that is not for sale.
7:34PM Everything is not always up for sale BUT when someone decides to make an offer that just can’t be passed up then there ya go! Money talks….
Quicker we can concrete over every inch of this island the better!
Always found the name ‘Island Paving’ more than a little disturbing.
Hear! Hear!
Put this dying dog to rest. Everyone’s up in arms about development yet can’t get to the real estate agents fast enough to unload what they have.
It sounds wicked but it’s true, get it over with.we Caymanians the younger generation na going to be able to afford it anyway, if they do they be in debt the rest of their life’s with these prices I see now people gone mad an the worst part our government is sitting idle while lining there poc—-ts an the Caymanians that’s selling their land set back with there lump sum complaining after the fact sad
If the National Trust was so concerned they could have easily made a deal with the developer. Obviously the family could have cared less about the historical house – as they sold it to a developer.
Really sick and tired hearing the National Trust bitch moan and complain about these older houses. Why don’t they be proactive and do something – like get volunteers or paid help to take apart the building and move it to one of their many many properties that they own.
National Trust, put up or shut up – unna are sickening.
CNS: The article mentions that the house was on a list. There is no comment whatsoever by the Trust.
Someone who seems to be clueless. The developer knocked it down with intent with complete disregard and respect.
Sick and tired of nasty, hate-filled trolls like you spreading lies and disinformation.
Talk talk talk. No one gives a s–t. I believe it must be part of a plan to erase cayman culture and history. Seems like it is the only plan the planning dept.has
By Caymanians. That’s the weird part.
Bronte ???
I think the planning dept and the DOE should have been a little more proactive here and asked a few more questions about this. Somehow, even if only symbolically, they should have insisted that the essence of the historical structure should be removed, similar to removing 10,000 year old fossils, to someplace like the Botanic Gardens for heritage’s sake. Just saying!
Under what law?
If anyone wants ‘historic preservation’ to change you need to campaign for a law to make it happen. until then … leave the DoE and Planning out of it. Historic preservation is not their job.
The ones from Australia, or Canada?
It only gets highlighted when we can confirm Caymanians are involved. However the hundreds of expat developers since the boom gain impunity somehow, hardly anyone calls them out. When their behavior is just as socially and equally destructive.
Planning Department has an unnecessary amount of expats working in it. But then again the Minister in charge of planning is a Caymanian and he isn’t doing that good of a job.
Because they are lured in from abroad with the big paycheque and lifestyle, but then don’t realise that they actually can’t make any difference and are mere administrators before moving on. Caymanians realise they would never be able to put their relevant degrees to work when the main objective is to approve every and all development.
Rubbish. The construction industry knows planning is almost expat free these days.
Every small beautiful island country has families who inherited land. What do you want them to do? Of course they’re going to sell it off to developers for huge bucks so they can rub elbows with the rich without ever doing a day’s work. Then they can live anywhere in the world, have their children educated in wealthy school systems elsewhere, etc. I give money and my estate to buy land to preserve it but then I’m just enriching the lives of the wealthy coming here to retire and those who are selling off more of the already limited supply of property–and they won’t grant me citizenship! You’re welcome.
i know it is an impossible task, but cayman needs to identify real heritige and culture it can cling on to…. not derelict shacks built 150 years ago
Heritage and culture are typically represented by things created over a hundred years ago so …. shrugs
headline could also be:
‘abandoned derelict house removed for community enhancement’
The house was not abandoned as the previous owner occupied it until she passed away a few months ago
Get the facts straight before you make comments
Im confused about the purpose of the Natural trust because it appears that the only thing they are concerned about protecting is the Turtle nesting, what about the people and our historic buildings. In other parts of the world you are not allowed to even alter the exterior of a building.
The greedy developers are allowed to destroy our beaches, our Mangroves, and the Island is going to soon sink from the weight of concrete especially on the narrow stretch of land in west bay
Sorry to hear she passed away. Anyone know what’s become of ‘The Egyptian’?
12:46 pm If anyone lived in that house a few months ago, this country should be ashamed. The “house” that was demolished had NO ROOF and was overgrown with vegetation. There is absolutely no way it was habitable, much less maintained to a state befitting a heritage structure.
I can confirm that 3 people were living there up until very recently, Ms. Althea and her 2 support workers. The house was unfortunately falling apart, floors sinking in etc. and likely damaged beyond repair without completely changing the house any way.
You are totally wrong. Miss Althea lived in the modern house STILL on the site. Go look at the land registry, Miss Althea sold the whole property 10 years ago but remained living there for free until she passed away. Even after she passed away her legal guardians were given many months to preserve Miss Althea’s possessions. By selling her house 10 years ago she was able to afford to stay in the home for the rest of her life, pay for helpers and have a comfortable last 10 years+ of her life.
The key word is shack.
Department of Environment is not the National Trust. There is no Natural Trust.
Your facts are completely incorrect. The home which Miss Althea lived in for over 30 years is still untouched on the property. A derelict structure destroyed in hurricane Ivan is what was removed. Miss Althea sold the whole property 10 years ago and remained in the existing house rent free until she passed away a few months ago. Contact Miss Althea’s Court appointed guardians to get your facts straight.
You get YOUR facts straight. They are “National” Trust, not ‘natural’, and it is not the purview of the National Trust to influence turtle nesting sites. You are thinking of the DOE and the very many volunteers, some of which are probably also NT members.
Otherwise, I agree with your statements.
9:47 am This is exactly the case. A heritage home was NOT demolished. An abandoned derelict house was.