WaterColours trims plans by 8 feet following Airports Authority objection
The
Central Planning Authority has granted permission for the first 10-storey
condominium development on Seven Mile Beach following amendments to the
planning law this year.
The
authority approved the WaterColours development last week after the developer
agreed to amend the height of the building in accordance with objections raised
by the Cayman Islands Airports Authority.
“They
have planning permission to put up three additional storeys,” said Director of
Planning Haroon Pandohie. “[The Airports Authority’s objections] were resolved
prior to the meeting.”
The development now includes nine
storeys of residential apartments and a basement parking level. It had
originally applied for six storeys of condos and one floor of parking area.
The company revealed in August that
it planned to increase the number of storeys, but planning permission was not
secured until 27 October.
WaterColours
has not yet been granted a building permit for the additional three floors
because the Building Code has not been updated to reflect amendments to the
Development and Planning Law and related regulations passed in the Legislative
Assembly in July.
Mr.
Pandohie said amendments to the Building Code are under way, and that since the
company already has a building permit for the first six floors of WaterColours,
by the time it begins building the additional three floors, the Building Code
will have been amended.
The current Building Code does not
allow for buildings over seven storeys or 91 feet high.
The Airports Authority’s objection
stated that the building as proposed penetrated the Airport Obstacle Limitation
Surfaces, which set the maximum height of buildings along Seven Mile Beach at
150 feet. The authority measures building height from mean sea level to the
peak of the proposed roof. In the case of Watercolours, the height it applied
for was 155 feet to the main roof and 158 feet to the peak of a cupola on top
of the building.
Kim
Lund, the real estate broker who is selling WaterColours for developer Fraser
Wellon, said the plans had included “spires” on the top of the building “that
were a little too high for the Cayman Islands Airports Authority, so he has…
adjusted the profile of the roof”.
Watercolours, on the site of the
former Beach Club Colony hotel, was originally granted planning permission for
40 apartments in September 2008. That permission was granted before the planning
law was changed this year to allow for 10-storey buildings, or structures a
maximum of 130 feet tall, on Seven Mile Beach.
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This is unbelievable! I guess the sky is the limit from now on. This will look particularly nice next to an empty Westin going into foreclosure and the wreck that was the Hyatt.,
What ARE they thinking of?
I would appreciate the author clarifying the legal height for a building. The article says the law allows buildings to now be up to 130 feet yet this building was approved at 150 feet. It probably relates to where you start measuring from (ground level vs. mean sea level)but I would rather not guess.
This is a huge mistake for the Island. The only local people who will benefit will be the real estate agents. We will have to live with the results of them pimping our Island for the rest of our lives.
As the sun still rises in the east, I wonder at what time it will hit the beach given the vast shadow these tall buildings will cast?