Rental unit overcrowding fuels parking chaos
(CNS): As Cayman’s population growth continues unchecked and its infrastructure creaks under the pressure, the police are trying to deal with one of the resulting stress points: unsafe parking due to overcrowded accommodation. The RCIPS said it has been receiving complaints of vehicles blocking public roadways and making it unsafe for pedestrians and motorists to pass. As officers conducted inquiries, they found that this is due to higher occupancy at the properties than there is parking provision for, which results in the spillover of vehicles onto the roadside.
The RCIPS said that when officers went to make checks on one rental property, they found that it had more derelict vehicles in designated parking spaces than working vehicles. Officers issued tickets to the tenants for obstructing the roadway, and the landlord has now made adjustments to allow for more vehicles on the property.
Since this is an increasingly common problem, the RCIPS is reminding landlords that rental properties must allow enough parking for the number of tenants occupying the property. As well as being a traffic offence, illegal parking affects the quality of life for the residents who share the roadway. It is also a major hazard as it obstructs emergency vehicles from responding to save lives or property.
“This issue goes beyond police enforcement — tickets only get us so far,” said Inspector Ian Yearwood, Head of Community Policing. “Instead, the community must work with the police and other partners to find solutions to improve the situation for all residents, including the removal of derelict cars to free up space on lots for working cars to park, making changes to lots to allow extra space for vehicles, restricting the number of vehicles at tenanted residences, and ensuring that when persons do need to park on the roadway, it is only done where there is space for drivers to safely pass by, especially in the case of emergency services vehicles.”
He said that everyone must work together to prevent the blockages occurring on residential streets.
As part of the RCIPS holiday safety campaign, Winter Guardian, police warned that patrols will be targeting communities to assess parking complaints and will issue parking infringements to anyone blocking public roadways. Landlords and tenants are encouraged to work together to remedy any parking overflow issues at rental properties and to ensure the roads are unobstructed.
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We beginning to look alot like Jamaica everywhere we go!
anyone with a bit of foresight would be investing in a home in the Brac or Little Cayman. going to be very few but the few will be v rich
Just check Bayfield Crescent in Newlands and Moonbeam. Jamaicans with status renting out rooms & have their cars taking up half the street. This country is in a mess thanks our neighbors bringing their bad morals & way of life here.
And our planning department, department of WORC, and dci, refusing to enforce our laws…
Moon beam, don’t even mention down there. There is a family down my road that their yard looks like a damn junk yard! So many cars and garbage around the place, real eye sore. Nothing done, Wayne won’t do anything. Running down the value in the neighborhood!!!
Wayne has been the biggest disappointment. The complaint would need to come from his friends or family for him to care.
Lmao I can see the exact yard you talking about from google earth. The house is fully surrounded by cars like a wall.
Can they add Camana Bay’s Nexus, Forum and Emeritus roads and
Shamrock, Old Crewe Road, Mahogany and Legacy Drive to that list too please. So much missed govt revenue on those roads!
How’s this for an idea – a dedicated traffic unit that issues tickets for double parking, yellow line parking, out of date vehicle and road tax, derelict vehicles, overly tinted windows, phone use while driving, not using seatbelts, car seats for children – think of the money to be made.
Oh, wait, don’t we have one of those…
We do have police traffic unit here.
This doesn’t make sense:
“The RCIPS ……, they found that it had more DERELICT VEHICLES in designated parking spaces than working vehicles. Officers issued TICKETS to the TENANTS FOR OBSTRUCTING THE ROADWAY” – surely RCIPS should issue tickets to whomever owns the derelict vehicles causing the tenants to park on the roadway?
Not enough parking at Camana Bay for employees.
Not to mention Dart decides to resurface the only public covered parking during working hours. Who’s making these decisions? I thought Dart was elite and did things correct and had the most commonsense. However, they operate more and more like CIG and NRA. You know it’s bad when the security guard start profiling people and rush them to ask where you work.
For lazy employees at least.
Go work in town then.
Build cycle lanes.
It will only get worse and worse. There is no additioanl development of low-cost housing for those service industry workers, nannies, security guards, hotel workers, etc. What happens when all the new hotels are open? Where are those hundreds of workers going to live? There’s the new hotel by the Kimpton and then two along West Bay Road near Kirks and The Wharf. While we’re at it, what are those two hotels on West Bay Road going to do to traffic in that area. It’s one lane in each direction. Never any actual planning done in this country!!!
Solution, buy in the Brac for when Grand is finally unbearable.
Brac has Jet service, hospital, good paved roads, utilities, supermarkets, negligible crime , no traffic jams, and safe from storms on the Bluff.
I hope Brakkas have seen the damaging effects of mass importation of regional economic refugees, and continue with Philipinos to work in the service industries there.
If businesses would stop paying slave wages Caymanians would do the job & we wouldn’t need so many permits for low skill work. The responsibility should be on the employer to find suitable accommodation & it shouldn’t be 4 grown adults to ONE room.
So we can have more slums? Have you seen what has become of the “low cost housing” built around the island. Many have had to be torn down as there was no upkeep. It’s all good and well to build, but who is enforcing the cleanliness and care of these properties? No one, they become eye sores and petri dishes.
it’s ok, they can just keep ripping down forest in East End, and making new low cost housing subdivisions that never get completed.
Every service worker can afford to run a reliable car, and is willing to drive 1hr+ each way to town to work minimum wage, right?!
Developers of all types of multi-family housing – high-end to low end, are allowed to dedicate 2 spaces per unit in the planning submissions; plus usually, a small number for visitors, thereby maximizing the development lot for residence space – the actual money.
Two spaces per unit, plus a few visitor spaces is not realistic. Many units have multi-tenancy and/or many people own more than one vehicle.
However, rather than see the big picture and approach the problem from the top – a REAL public transport system – watch Government address this problem, now that it’s been presented to Authorities, by increasing the requirement for more spaces/unit in development regulations, thus inflating the cost of development and the resulting housing……!!
Government “fixes”, over-regulation and other moron measures contribute to the high cost-of-living here!
The 10 story condo by pickleball academy proposed 48 units of one, two and three bedrooms each, yet a garage for only 47 vehicles. We need to rethink how people get around and provide the safe and affordable options of any other modern urban center. Bike/scooter lanes and bus transport.
Just a check here…multi-tennacy is against most strata by laws.
Another location is Bodden Town west of the post office in between Cumber Avenue the illegal gambling and criminal activities and cars constantly reversing on to main road which is highly dangerous and obstructs traffic at all hours of the day and night. Bodden towners are sick of this s#@! Minister Jon jon doing absolutely nothing for the community as minister of Border Control which is badly need to intervene and remove these types from our island and district.
Bodden town is a mess especially the public beach with lots of litter, drugs, alcohol & serious crime. Jon Jon should feel shame but he gets his big pay check so he don’t care. #votehimout
This isn’t just a problem at rental housing properties. Even around the Ritz Carlton there is constantly a huge number of cars parked all over the road, in the bushes, and squeezed onto the property. When there is a conference it is very dangerous as the parked cars block all angles of the roadview
Ah, the benefits of poverty, and an abundance of empty high end properties.
please please come and ticket or remove all the ones in Prospect! Time to clean up this island in more ways than one. Our way of life is being depleted every year to the benefit of a tiny few. If your representatives aint about reducing the population and slicing this runaway development vote against them. We used to be able to afford a House with a yard and fruit trees, now we are being stacked together like sardines. This not the Cayman way.
This is just a big smoke screen, not a dam thing will be done.Probably most of the vehicles do not even have up to date insurance and the drivers might not even have licenses. Most are just these old junkers that should be put in the scrap yard. But it is just business as usual in the Cayman Islands – right on Jon-Jon
no, no no, these are precious commodities for those that cant afford a car less than 8 years old,
Report it
Yet another issue that a professional public transport system would assist with.
Kenny buses soon come.
Not needed. Simply take what we currently have, make it more professional. Start slowly with a definite plan and maybe we will get to new busses.
We also need new bus drivers. Anyone born in JA or descended from there should not get a license to drive them. Their behavior is despicable and they devalue our Tourism sector.
Just like his development plan that his foreign wife will benefit from selling.
Parking is even a problem at the high end condos. Owners with too many vehicles and their nannies filling up all the visitor spots.
Viable and effective public transport would help. But Cayman is held hostage by the used vehicle sellers and the minibus cartel.
we could get a 100% efficient public transport system right now and we would still have traffic. we as a people are to selfish to give up our personal transportation and comfort.
How about not allowing work permit holders to buy vehicles and limiting cars imported? It’s the merchant class and their banking lobbyists that will not allow this so leave Caymanians to enjoy some privileges
Overcrowding is a whole issue, but another one is that there were realistic transportation options, people wouldn’t be forced to own a car when they can’t even afford to rent a place that has sufficient parking.
Do our Fire Regulations/Planning Regulations dictate safe occupancy rates for commercial buildings and private dwellings? One day there will be a tragic fire and lives will be lost because no one in authority cared to ensure fire occupancy safety rules. A 2 bedroom apartment can now be the home of 12 adults as bedrooms, living rooms are retrofitted with bunk beds and most of these adults will have their own Honda Fit to park. Make it make sense!
Warehouses on Bodden Road are prime example housing more than 6 people in one unit and cars galore people mixed up robberies theft and all sorts of criminal things absolutely nothing done no matter how many times you report it . This place is gone only worried about development money flowing in one direction which they claim is benefiting Cayman! Politicians and political sponsors no what time it is !
Go check warehouse at the quarries too.
Please come to Scholars Drive in West Bay!
Every Friday night, Saturday night and sometimes Sunday night, there is one house that has so many cars obstructing the road.
From what I gather there is some type of illegal restaurant and liquors store or bar in operation.
How I know, is that every time I drive across to get to my apartment, I see person leaving with styrofoam plates and soup cups as well as the alcohol bottles.
On Monday, which is garbage collection day for West Bay, there are so many extra capacity garbage bags full of bottles.
These bags are also placed on the road side.
I get up every day around 5am to drive to the gym, and am able to see the garbage truck men struggle, and hear the clinging of all the bottles in the bags as they struggle to lift and toss into the rear of the garbage truck.
What makes matters worse, is that the house is situated at the beginning of a bend/curve in the road.
So there are allot of blind spots.
Because of all of the cars, there is only one lane accessible for about 90% of that curve in the road.
If ever there was a car driving in each lane in the road, there will be no time to avoid a head-on collision.
Did you report it?
The problem is the landlords are Caymanian so nothing is done.
Actually, many of the slumlords are not Caymanian. And either way the problem is that the DCI does not enforce the T&B law. People are renting more than two units with no licensing or licensed agent – literally an offense.
come to BT
The slumlords are Jamaicans with status #ThanksMac
So Caymanians…
This is all unlawful, and the police and all our other robust enforcement agencies do nothing.
Millions of dollars being spent and no one doing their jobs.
What does work think the accommodation forms are for? So they can tick a box and boast of how much paperwork they receive?
That question should be directed to the minister in charge of immigration, and whom may that be?
The multi occupant room rental industry is part and parcel of a minimum wage system that bears no relationship to the cost of living.
This segment of the economy operates on the “Walmart principle”.
These employers are allowed to get away with not paying a proper living wage by effectively leaving it up to the government to provide supplemental assistance in various forms, including in this case policing spillover parking that interferes with public roads.
I hate to say it but the wage isn’t the issue. The issue is the lack of housing. People are being forced to have 4 plus people in a 1 bedroom. Not because they can’t afford it. It because there is nowhere available. For years everyone complained the wages where to low and the expats where stealing all the jobs in the service industry. These same expats were living in nice condos in the 7 mile area and parting every weekend.
Bullshit.
We didn’t have this 20 years ago. This is a direct result of the 2007 immigration laws that shape policy now, and the flood of temp workers from third world countries looking to try and better their lives and that of their families by earning the Cayman dollar. Up until 12 years ago you could rent a room for $500 and an apartment or small cottage for $1,000. With greed and corruption came overdevelopment and overambitious population plans, absolutely zero improvement to education and BOOM, you have what we see today.
Expats stealing jobs in the service industry?
Couldn’t possibly be the employers wanted better employees.
Majority of this problem is property owners built on with out Planning permission/chopped up their family home into rental rooms, with no parking space and Planning kept silent and turned a blind eye.
This holiday period, the RCIPS should really get familiar with the leaflet that is the Traffic Regulations, in particular, the section on ticketable offences. Then start filling some general revenue receivable booklets. Policing private tenant parking, might be a popular idea, but it is not on their list. Selective focus is a perennial issue with the RCIPS and has eroded public confidence. It will take years of focus to dispel perceptions that they know what their job is.
private parking cannot be policed for that reason…its private and doesnt come under traffic law
But no adjustments to slave-level minimum wage…got it.
You are upset and I can understand that.
However, your hyperbole contradicts itself and makes your argument foolish and easily dismissive.
How about police stop driving by derelict cars and actually proactively call the tow trucks to move them? It’s not that hard to go a little above and beyond.
to take them where? who pays for the tow truck?
It’s a great idea, but RCIPS ain’t bothered.
To the dump where they belong. Trace back the license plates and ticket the offenders.
Well, there is an “Environmental” fee collected on all those vehicles… where does that money go?
Po Po had a tow truck, what happened to it?
Rent has gone up so much people are sharing units and bringing their cars with them. Nowhere to park in my complex anymore… then combine that with Cayman’s lazy parking style and it’s a gong show.
Only in Cayman – people can’t afford rent, so they have to share, but they can buy a car.
It’s a necessity. No safe trails for pedestrians and bicyclists.
You didn’t see all the ones they put in when John Lee was crying woe me?
This is what happens when you don’t enforce rules right from the start. There are Yellow lines painted all over this island that vehicles park on. It’s not like you can’t see it when you drive down south church street entering George town. As for parking around apartments when you have 4 people living in apartments all driving their own vehicles to work you run out of parking in a Hurry
Smith’s Cove is littered with cars parked on double yellows and nothing is done.
The large rocks preventing driving and parking on the beach there had no effect on the multiple trucks and suvs Saturday.
*barcadere
It’s not difficult. Enforce the planning laws and charge the property owners.
Shanty towns have no place in Cayman.
It’s not only shanty towns, but also all complexes. Have you been down by Cobalt Coast, between them and the West View complex the road is always doubled parked.
Have you seen Lakeside? There is little to no parking there and like 5 cars that can’t move for years parked in visitor spots. Nothing is enforced…now Bovell is trying to Jam Pack more people in there with this “bulk sale”
private property…this is a strata issue not the RCIP
Wait until GT One is completed. 11 stories on a two bit road with underground parking for maybe two floors. they’ll all be blocking Muss Edris and Miss Grace yard. How was this allowed to be built?
Why do even bother with WORC accommodation forms?
No one actually follows or enforces any laws around here!
Honorable Seymour says that ain’t so!
Planning laws are outdated and need revising. Complexes are still being built with insufficient parking. Even the Ritz was built with no staff parking. Of course the developers are against providing enough spaces so you have to legislate.