Planning board rejects application for $2M cemetery on the Bluff

A planning application for a walled cemetery on Bluff West Road in Cayman Brac, which received five letters of objection from neighbouring residents, has been refused.

The $2 million proposal included graveyards, a prayer room, an entrance foyer, four ponds, prayer gardens and a 28-space carpark on a 2.8-acre parcel of land on the Bluff.

The whole site would have been surrounded by a 136-foot by 401-foot wall – with a maximum height of 14 foot – according to developer Jonathan Palmer’s plan.

However, objectors suggested it would not be fitting in the area, it could devalue their properties, and it would have a “very eerie” presence.

The Development Control Board met with the representatives for Palmer and objectors to discuss the application on 18 Sept.

The minutes of the meeting containing the final decision were published on Tuesday, 28 Nov.

‘Small and eerie’

Of the five objectors, Joseph Woods, Jonathan Tibbetts and Remardo Ebanks attended the meeting to restate their key arguments while Charles Parchment joined via Zoom.

Woods in his letter said the proposal is out of character with developments in the residential area and will affect the value of nearby properties.

Another issue he brought up was the size of the site which he suggested was a “bit small for a cemetery”.

“I suggest they construct apartments for the living and consider doing a cemetery in a more remote, larger location,” Woods wrote.

Tibbetts, in his objection letter, said the proposed cemetery “completely devalues my long-term home” which he said he had valued at $1 million.

“Evidence will show that homes that are built near cemeteries lose significant value as the appeal for such homes deteriorates immediately.”

He said in the plan for the cemetery it looks like a shrine and is not consistent with any development on any of the three Cayman Islands.

Ebanks also suggested the cemetery could result in more traffic that could restrict access to his land, and said the development would require the felling of trees.

“Having a cemetery in the proposed site would prevent us from carrying out our normal everyday lives as there is a very eerie and real spiritual presence to such sites,” he added.

Parchment and the fifth objectors, Melinda and Charles Ebanks, did not detail their reasons for rejecting the project in their letters.

Urn vaults

John MacKenzie, appearing at the meeting on behalf of the developer, said because of the objectors’ concerns, burial vaults were swapped with 1,500 urn vaults in the plan.

He stressed that there would be no burying of bodies and all deceased would be cremated, according to the meeting’s minutes.

MacKenzie added that the applicant wanted a secure site, safe from hurricanes, and said a lot of the natural vegetation would be left.

He explained that the cemetery was a way of attracting wealthy foreigners to Cayman who did not want their estate to lose value on their death through inheritance tax.

The Development Control Board refused the application because it said the proposed use of the site is incompatible with the residential nature of the neighbourhood.

It added that the “massing, scaling, proportion and design” of the development is inconsistent with the architectural tradition of the islands.

The board concluded that no evidence was provided to demonstrate a pressing need for a cemetery at the site.