The families of Premier Alden McLaughlin and Works Minister Kurt Tibbetts collectively own nearly 30 acres of land abutting sections of a planned extension to the East-West Arterial road, an extension that would facilitate a mixed-use residential development and golf course resort.
Both government leaders agreed to discuss the issue when the Caymanian Compass asked questions about it Thursday, after the newspaper located the relevant parcels in the Cayman Islands Land register.
However, Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Tibbetts did not disclose the matter during a press conference on March 3 regarding the Ironwood development, which announced plans to fund the road extension via a public-private partnership with the developer.
“The discussion [at the press conference] was not about this [land ownership issue],” Mr. McLaughlin said. “I was waiting for someone to ask the question. I wasn’t going to introduce this issue. The land is not mine, it’s my father’s. If it was mine, it would have been on the register [of interests].”
A 17-acre parcel off Frank Sound Road on the southeastern edge of the Mastic Reserve, abutting the proposed route of the planned road extension to the north, is registered to Alden McNee McLaughlin, the premier’s 87-year-old father. The land would be opposite the new Ironwood golf resort, if and when it is built.
A 10.94-acre parcel to the southwest of the reserve is owned by Mr. Tibbetts’s wife Shirley Ann Tibbetts and her sister Carla Sue Watler-McLaughlin. A third owner of the property was listed as Marjorie Jesmina Stewart. That parcel is farther from the Ironwood development site at the junction of two planned roads – one of which would veer south toward the Health City Cayman Islands complex.
“[The two roads were] gazetted nine years ago,” Mr. McLaughlin said, adding that the gazetting occurred before the People’s Progressive Movement government took office in May 2005. “For anyone to suggest I had anything to do with that [gazetting] is just ridiculous.”
Mr. McLaughlin said he first became aware of the road taking away a portion of his father’s 17-acre property when a friend who is involved in the Ironwood project told him that the land grab would “significantly devalue” the land. “It has 1,100 feet of frontage on Frank Sound Road; it doesn’t need road access,” the premier said of his father’s land. “[The road plan] doesn’t run up against the boundary [to the south]…to minimize the land loss to the parcel. What we’re talking about in terms of land loss now is 220 feet. How that is supposed to enhance the value of that parcel…is beyond me.
“It is daddy’s parcel that takes the full brunt of [the land acquisition in the area] and I can tell you he’s less than pleased,” the younger Mr. McLaughlin said. “He’ll be 88 in August, but there’s nothing wrong with his head.”
Mr. Tibbetts said he believed the East-West Arterial extension did not go through his wife’s property.
“I can’t move the land, and I didn’t gazette [the road],” Mr. Tibbetts said. “I never heard or had any conversations with [relatives] or anybody else about the road and their land. I knew from the beginning [his wife Shirley Ann] had the land, but what I’m saying is I didn’t look at the map to see how close it was or anything like that. I didn’t even think of that.”
The Ironwood development project plans a $360 million golf resort and is seeking to confirm a public-private partnership to build a 10-mile extension to the East-West Arterial road that now terminates in Newlands.
Ironwood spokesperson Denise Gower told the Caymanian Compass Thursday that the proposed development would fail if the new road extension was not built. During the March 3 press conference, Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Tibbetts acknowledged that building the road would involve the compulsory purchase of private land along the route. Both men said at the time that the land affected would increase in value as a result of the road.
Mr. McLaughlin said the same thing on Thursday, but noted that he was speaking of the general value of properties in the area. Specifically regarding his father’s land, the premier said he believed it would lose value because of the 220-foot section being seized by the proposed road development. The premier estimated that the entire 17-acre parcel had a value of close to $1 million.
The National Trust has expressed concern that the current outlined route of the road cuts through the Mastic Trail and suggested that it should be moved to the south. Mr. McLaughlin said that would suit his father and his family members just fine, but he said during the March 3 press conference that he didn’t think the current road route should be changed.
The planned road will cut through a section of the Mastic Reserve land held by the Trust, but it is a matter of some dispute whether the section of the Mastic Trail in the area is on land owned by the Trust or if it is a part of private property.
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As soon as I heard about how they mentioned the road could not be rerouted I knew they had to have some type on interest in its location. As far as the ownership goes Alden saying that the land isn’t owned by him but by his 88 year old father is a crock because it’s still family owned land which I’m sure he controls. As for Tibbetts saying that it is his wife’s land and not his is equally crooked because if it’s hers it’s his, when you’re married everything you both own belongs to you both. All of these properties should have been declared as interests for these civil servants I wonder if they were ?
I find it really hard to believe that Tibbetts had no conversations with his own wife about how the road would affect their land and I emphasize theirs. And it’s equally unlikely that he didn’t look at the map to see how close it was. I think these are all lies, no I’m sure they are.
Alden is trying to make it seem like the road will not increase the value of his land, ops I mean his 88 year old fathers land, we should all know that is also bull because with the new road it will convert his property to a corner property right smack on the new highway and Frank sound road which will turn it into priceless commercial property, he must really think people are stupid.
It is regrettable that two such seasoned politicians chose to not defuse this issue at the March 3rd press conference as immediate family’s land ownership simply raises doubts that transparency could have avoided.
Let us not be diverted by this. If Alden’s father owned the land from a long time ago, then so be it. Leave it alone. Let us give credit to any politicians who are willing to be transparent.
I am sure that Alden will be transparent and encourage his party to follow suit. The country waits for the full impact of disclosure. Honest politicians have nothing to fear.