PAT backs DCB’s refusal for ‘offshore’ columbarium
(CNS): Plans by landowners to create a columbarium on Cayman Brac with three 12-foot walls to store the ashes of dead foreign rich people have been thwarted by the Planning Appeals Tribunal on the Sister Islands after it upheld the decision by the Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Development Control Board (DCB) to refuse planning permission.
The aim had been to cater to a demand from high-net-worth people to relocate their tax domicile here to avoid death taxes.
The application by Jonathan D’Urban Palmer and Diane Palmer to create a space for the cremated remains of thousands of people on block 102A parcel 308 on the Bluff was refused by the DCB on several grounds.
These included the incompatibility with the residential neighbourhood and that it would introduce noise and nuisance. The board also said the massing, scaling, proportion and design of the development was inconsistent with the historic architectural tradition of the islands and that there was no evidence of a pressing need for a cemetery at the site.
While the tribunal ultimately agreed that the DCB had followed the law and refused permission based on the incompatibility and size of the project, Magistrate Kirsty-Ann Gunn, who chairs the PAT for the Sister Islands, raised concerns about other aspects of the refusal.
The board had said that “the adverse impacts of allowing this development would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits touted by the applicant”.
However, the tribunal noted that the DCB had not identified the adverse impacts and benefits or explained how they were weighted, concluding that the “DCB’s decision is wholly inadequate in that it does not identify and address how it dealt with any of the Appellant’s arguments or those of the objectors… A generic vague statement is wholly unsatisfactory.”
The PAT ruling urged the DCB to be more transparent about the decision-making process because they risked decisions being set aside due to ambiguity or lack of reasons.
At the time of the planning application, the owners and their representatives had argued that the demand for a columbarium containing up to 5,000 niches, each with as many as five urns, was for high-net-worth foreigners to relocate their tax domicile to a low- or no-tax jurisdiction to avoid death taxes. Changing domicile would involve the purchase of a niche for an urn, the purchase of local property and the settling of a will in Cayman.
They also said it would bring around 300 new HNW individuals and families to the island each year. This, in turn, would increase property value and attract more tourists to the Brac.
Anna Russell-Knee, who represented the DCB, said the board had found that the claimed financial benefit to overseas people wanting to relocate their tax domicile was not a proper planning consideration and should be disregarded. She also argued that the DCB could not take into account whether or not the project would affect property prices on the Brac, either positively or negatively, which was why the board did not consider these claims by the applicant.
The tribunal disagreed on some points but nevertheless found that the DCB was justified in its decision and there had been no breach of natural justice, as claimed by the appellants. The tribunal was satisfied that a finding that the project is inconsistent with the nature of the surrounding residential properties was reasonable grounds for refusing the application.
Category: development, Local News
Declined for reasons of incompatibility with a residential community and the noise and nuisance it would cause.
Yet 240 yards away there is a working quarry, blasting and crushing rock to provide construction aggregates for sale. approved by the same board and is in total contradiction to all the reasons they rejected in this proposal.
Where is there any noise and nuisance for this quiet and peaceful Columbarium development with in a 70% of totally natural untouched preserve area of the land.
Are they going to respond with the same reasoning when Frank Schilling’s application for Port Zeus is submitted ?????????
Last days now – we want to import duppies. God Help us. Poor Cayman Brac. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Last days now – we want to import duppies. God Help us. Poor Cayman Brac. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
There is an on going mission to demolish us. Dear God “we” should not have even given this a second thought. I wonder where the ”secret deals” of the lock down is going to end and what else is in stored for us. PPM surely trying to complete their mission. Seriously we are in a detrimental mess. God help us.
On the other hand poor Cayman Brac just cannot accommodate anymore DUPPIES they have too many already!!!
Hmmm? Meanwhile, we’re out of cemetery space and new cemeteries are being built in swamp. Check the new WB and BT cemeteries!
Even if this proposal was for the wrong reasons and is ill-suited, some form of mausoleum is needed now!!!
Read this above carefully. It was not trying to facilitate more cemetery space, nor even future storage space for the ashes of locals. It was a scheme, in the American sense of the word, which has a nefarious meaning.
In short, they wanted to create a tax dodge for wealthy Americans, with all of us as the fall guys. As an extra added bonus, it might have encouraged 300-500 more super wealthy folk to buy property in Cayman Brac, thus ensuring that the price of land and housing was well out of the reach of the regular Caymanians.
DCB did right, and for the right reasons. Cayman Brac denizens aren’t against development, but we’re well tired of mysterious projects being foisted upon us by CIG, that always somehow need our dollars to make it work. You want the people of the Sister Islands on board for your ideas, you’d better talk with them about it first. We are tired of being used.
We live here for a reason. It used to be more quiet. We do NOT WANT to make it less quiet. It didn’t used to be busy. we do NOT WANT it to be more busy. We can stand the various festivals that happen a few times a year. Most of us just stay home when the droves of people come here from GC.
Your incorrect, has nothing AT ALL to do with wealthy Americans. They pay tax GLOBALLY.
Our Politicians continue to show us that their legacy will be that every single one of them, past and present, is hell bound to sell the Cayman Islands to the highest bidder. Long and short of this matter is that our politicians honestly have nothing but their bank balance in mind when claiming that they are making ongoing decisions in the best interests of the CI. NOT! STOPPING CREATING AN ECONOMIC ATMOSPHERE THAT WILL ULTIMATELY BE OUR DOWNFALL!
“They also said it would bring around 300 new HNW individuals and families to the island each year. This, in turn, would increase property value and attract more tourists to the Brac.” And this is why an ordinary piece of raw land is going for CI$100,000. WELL DONE BRAC! At least one set of us got some sense.
Seems like the DCB and the Planning Appeals Tribunal are the ones trying to stop development in the Brac and the Sister Islands.
Yet they would like us to believe that it is the DoE and the NCC that are stopping development.
Who stopped this development?
Kudos to the PAT to have blocked this ludicrous proposal.
I trust that the Premier was not in favor of this proceeding
Let the dead bury the dead.
These plans are incompatible with the neighborhood yet building housing for construction workers on the bluff for a new high school that everyone in the neighborhood opposed is ok, hmm seems it just depends on who not what.
Yet we are perfectly happy for Kenny to build HNWs a private jet terminal paid for by the ordinary joes using the airport and financed in the meantime by the tax payer.
April’s Fool again..? Think Arlington a little different from 3 liitle rock islands
Whilst I agree with the decision, the Magistrate’s scathing criticism of the DCB’s reasoning is worrying.
Who are the DCB members and do they have any relevant qualifications? Or they just handpicked political stooges.
They are qualified people from the community who have been doing, and will continue to do an excellent job, filtered through the ideal of what is best for the Sister Islands.
No, I have no relation or other affiliation to the board.
Grand Cayman caters to foreign wealthy investors buying properties and avoiding taxes.
Brac should think themselves lucky. All it does is drive up prices beyond the average working person and create a class divide that is only widening
Grand Cayman is just like every other place in the world. The hard working(Rich to you)Expats and locals will always get ahead of the hardly working. And the hardly working ones will always cry the loudest. This will never change. Especially on the Brac.
Given that the Brac is actively being destroyed by excessive quarrying, land clearing and the demolition of the last historic houses that remain in the Cayman Islands in any quantity, it is a little strange that some boxes for urns is a line in the sand. Are these worse than, for example, a data storage facility?
Don’t get me wrong. I am not supporting this particular scheme. But it does seem, as another example, less problematic than keeping large numbers of goats in facilities that are not fit for purpose.
But all of the things going on the Brac are because of the historic refusal to countenance any developmental regulations and zoning.
LOL, wait until you see what they actually build there now that the stage has been set.
@Anonymous 24/05/2024 at 12:04 pm
Why don’t you tell us what they intend to build then….
That’s for me to know and you to find out
That’s for you to talk out of your butt and hint about. That’s what trolls do. You don’t know anything.
and cayman claims its not an economy based on tax evasion…..zzzzzzzzzzzz
Avoidance not evasion – he scheme would be compliant with the foreign countries tax rules or there would be zero point in doing it.
If you’re concerned about it, fix your local laws. Ensure that you start with Delaware, Nevada, London, etc etc etc
Juju and Moses have turned the Brac into a retire community for their many unscrupulous followers and supporters. This idea would never get off the ground without their knowledge and tacit approval
Q. Where might longtime contributing HNW Caymanians (originally from elsewhere), who were legally tax resident in the Cayman Islands upon death get buried, if they aren’t an Ebanks or Bodden with a private family plot at a local cemetery? It looks like these contributors have to choose between the Garden of Reflection, some random DEH hole in the ground somewhere, burial at sea, or “repatriation” to somewhere far from surviving dependents and no longer home. Everywhere else is full or private family only. There is definitely a need for another dignified location, and it would be nice if it didn’t also need to be gated and barbed-wired with security to keep out the vile Caymanians commenting that would desecrate and spit on those choosing their adopted home for eternal rest.
This is very different from family burial grounds. This columbarium is intended for deseased/ remains to be removed from wherever to be laid in this ” for rich with death tax issues” location
whether related or not. Actually I find it to be an insulting affront to the Cayman Islands . We also do not need the fallout that could arise over taxes. We have enough problems already.- don’t need this one. Caymanians has no history of desecrating or spitting on anyone!
.
Applying sensibility and logic, what grounds would the DEH allow for the importation of human remains without any connection to Cayman Islands, for the purpose of permanent internment here, that don’t have any attachment to these islands? Let’s back it up one more notch: in what jurisdiction does choice of final resting place alter the death certificate and legal tax residency of the individual that proceeded burial rights? What kind of tax regime would accept after the fact redomicile of a multimillion dollar estate? Regardless if there exists such a backwater that might accept that, it still doesn’t solve the shortage of dignified public burial sites for many legit residents who have contributed to these islands for many years. Some of these comments would have you believe that “expats” with Earth-bound “wealth” and “comfort” are detested, dead or alive, and should be sent away to their origin countries, and there is a fair amount of spit in that thinking.
Caymanians and spit in the same sentence?
Well articularly said!
Exactly. Any time any of our policies have come against the IRS, it doesn’t bode well for us. Think how long we’ve struggled to get off the various monetary lists. Think of all the hoops you have to go through to use U.S. monetary instruments here and why.
Simple, decide when you are living what and where you want to go by making a Will..why you so bitter?
Would love to know how much they were planning on selling one of these spaces for given the amount these people would be saving in taxes after death…?
Quite lucrative….
Are there really any international tax authorities on Earth that would accept an international conveyance of HNW tax residency after death? Seems like it would be far too late to make alternative living arrangements when lying on a slab, or powdered in an urn. If so, what were these niches really going to be for?
There is a difference betweem domicile and residence. A peraon can have multiple residences but can only have one domicile. A loose definition of tax domicile is place of residencw where one intends to live and die amd be buried. Having a cemetary plot for example goes a long way in proving your domicile.
Thank you DCB! Great job!!
The audacity here has no bounds! Imagine removing all these remains and bring it here to be relocated in its own “segregated place”. This is insulting to the rest of the Cayman Islands population whether dead or still alive.
I have never heard anything so stupid! Past time for Cayman to stop encouraging these nonsensical ideas. All of these rich people dead or alive certainly had the wherewithal to live well, carefree and luxurious. Pay your taxes, and stop dragging the Cayman Inlands into stuff we have no business be.
By now, we ought to know and accept that there are many residents from overseas living and working and contributing to the Cayman Islands miracle. Some of them are HNW and quite a few are Caymanian Status holders. Where might you allow these countrymen to be buried? Will they (again) need your permission to be buried here, in their adopted home, near their dependents, even as you disparage and spit on their character? Who are you to do that?
They aren’t contributing jack!
They are living and benefiting off of “the Cayman Miracle”.
Now they want to die and still benefit off of it while Caymanians are left behind and our politicians are bought out.
Screw these people.
I have no problem with burying them in our graveyards like the rest of us. Segregation even in death.?
In the end, we’re all just ashes & dust.
..Ashes & Dust…
So? We are all contributing to the Cayman Islands miracle as you put. That does not mean they should have a segregated burial ground. I could be wrong but I doubt such facilities exist anywhere else. You have your gated communities etc., what else do you think your entitled to? Please remember that after death we will all return to dust no matter where from or how wealthy we are.
You might be surprised to learn that many of the Cayman Islands burial areas are segregated as private Caymanian family members only. If you investigate, you’ll find there are only a few other options, at any price. Many of them are full, waiting for surviving family members to pass. We could do worse than consider a few new dignified options in various districts for all the other families that might hope to memorialise their loved ones in a dignified way. We don’t need to pretend to understand what these Palmers folk were thinking on the business model and application side, but there is a need for well-kept, dignified burial sites. That is for certain.
We don’t want these people here… alive or dead.
They have not benefited our island at .
Expats should not be allowed to purchase land or be buried here … FULL STOP.
I’m longing to vote for a party who will finally stand up and put our people first!
Even in death… filthy rich remain filthy.
Wake up Cayman. Where ever these HNW (Low Ethics) individuals go, they ruin islands and countries.
They are not beneficial to any community. They come to to buy up all the resources and leave everyone else unable to compete or survive.
I’m proud of the Brac for having the balls that Grand Cayman lacks!
I thought everyone on the Brac lives off of expat money(Taxes, duty, fees, whatever you call them) Is there anything exported, built, sold(other than land) that creates home grown income there? The word is everyone works for or lives off of the CIG welfare system or a tourist(mostly expats)paid business. Honest Question Haters.
The only haters in the Cayman Islands are the over privileged HNW ticks that love everything about Cayman – EXCEPT for Caymanians.
We are sick of the plague of privileged and tone-deaf crowd that are inundating our home.
We will work on replacing the MLAs and then we’ll work on the over-privileged undesirables.
Missed April 1st Fools Day! Applaud the Dept on their decision
Good for the DCB and PAT. It should not be allowed in Cayman Islands. Hon. Deputy Premier Ebanks has worked tirelessly to have Cayman be seen in a more positive light. Even is legal it certainly would not create the right image for Cayman.
In which case that Ministry should have been the ones to say so, not the DCB
At least you wouldn’t have noisy neighbours.
A rare peak behind the curtain to see who actually pulls the strings here.
I can’t stop laughing at this idea. I’m sure it actually is legally sound but it’s the most startling, direct, egregious example of how far these islands have falling.
That is what Cayman is. In an absolute nutshell. A place for people to avoid taxes. Even when they are dead!
Build it and they will come because Cayman long gone.
It is another example of just how low Cayman has stooped, as if the bar was not already dragging at ground level .
The business case for the outfit pitching it to the ‘ high net worth ‘ league is they can still be the richest people in the cemetery.
A place where most of the locals are living off of the Government welfare system mostly due to the poor government run education system. This is also what Cayman is. A place where People live off of the taxes (duty, fees, whatever) that originally comes from overseas. You might want to reconsider who to blame and why. And maybe get a better education.
You don’t know or choose to not understand, the nature of the Cayman Islands. The majority of folks are employed by the government, either in one of their primary entities, or those tertiary to the government.
Those recipients of the NAU are not more than 15% of the people, and of those, more than 5% are just getting small benefit. Unlike where you are from, we actually take care of our elders, whether they had a plan in place or not.
As to blame, people like you who paint life with a broad indiscriminating brush are as much to blame as anyone, because you think you have the right to judge people without having been born nor lived in their situation.
We would rather you just said, “thank you” for the privilege which you’ve enjoyed while existing in Cayman.
You’re welcome. Maybe someday you will learn compassion, and to be humble.