Is a 100-foot setback enough to clinch a $30M 10-storey development?

A ten-storey complex will not be as imposing as its neighbours, a developer argued in a planning meeting on Wednesday, because it is set 100 feet further back from the road.

“The further away you are from the building, the less visual impact it has,” Eamon Wilson pitched to the the Central Planning Authority, on behalf of his company Bluecap Investments who want to build the $30m ‘The Shores’ development near the Cayman Tennis Pickleball Academy on West Bay Road.

His argument did not seem to sway the 30 objectors from nearby smaller developments, including The Renaissance, Discovery Point Club, Mandalay and Villa Royale, who lined the walls of a packed hearing room in the Government Administration Building on Wednesday.

Absent from the room was CPA chairman Iain Pairaudeau, who, at the application’s last hearing, declared an unspecified conflict of interest. Compass attempts to enquire after his absence on Wednesday were not answered and the question was declared a breach of CPA protocol.

Wilson told the committee his project would cover less of the lot than the permitted maximum and was appropriate for the area which is zoned “hotel/tourism”.

On behalf of the objectors, Selina Tibbetts of Jackson Law argued that having retail space in some ground floor units – The Shores intends to have a luxury coffee shop and an art gallery – brought into play a slew of additional regulations which govern commercial applications, of which the application fell foul.

And she said the scale of the building breached zoning regulations.

Wilson countered that the question of “scale” was also one of “perspective”, and while the nearby Renaissance was set back only 39 feet, The Shores would be set 136 feet back. He added: “We’ve deliberately located the building as far back as possible from the property line.”

Eighty-eight bedrooms and two cabanas

The Shores Condos will have 49 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with balconies – a total of 88 bedrooms – a pool and two cabanas.

The blueprints from Atlanta-based Blur Workshop also show large parking areas and a two-storey resident parking block with 87 spaces.

They include an arrival court, yoga lawn, coffee shop, barbecue area and planting.

An application for a 10-storey hotel on the plot was submitted in March 2019 but refused when planners decided the mass and scale were not in keeping with the character of the area. Five months later, planning permission was granted for a seven-storey hotel.

‘A cruise ship which has been left high and dry’

Owners at the nearby Commonwealth, Mandalay and Discovery Point Club condos on West Bay Road have all objected, arguing the height and design of the building is at odds with surrounding properties.

They also expressed concerns about privacy, traffic congestion, access and safety.

Chair of The Commonwealth owners’ executive committee George Wolff said they “vigorously” object to the development.

He wrote that when they bought their homes, Cayman’s maximum building was just three storeys, and they purchased the units for the quiet peacefulness of the area and the low housing density.

He described the narrow, tall, high-density design of the proposed building as having “the look of a cruise ship which has unfortunately been left high and dry on the wrong side of the road”, calling it a “sterile monolith” which would negatively impact nearby homes.

The owners of Mandalay and Discovery Point Club sent near-identical letters to the Central Planning Authority, saying the development could be a catalyst for more high-rise buildings.

Conflicts, recusals, and transparency

The last time this application came before the board, the minutes record committee chairman Iain Pairaudeau and member Kenneth Ebanks recused themselves due to conflicts of interest.

The minutes do not disclose the specific details of these conflicts.

In response to Compass efforts to clarify, a planning department spokeswoman said: “‘Conflicts’ in these matters can be for any reason – ranging from a cousin’s friend may be working on the project to being personally vested.

“The specific reasons for the conflicts are not required to be shared and therefore are not minuted.

“The onus is on the individual member to act with integrity and recuse him/herself – as was done in this case.”

In her 2019 report Fighting Corruption in the Cayman Islands, the Auditor General praised the CPA for opening its meetings to the public but noted their internal deliberations and voting were done in secret, advising the CPA to “continue to improve the transparency of their operations”.

Her report praised steps taken to fight corruption but said they were “not entirely effective” because they relied upon self-declaration of conflicts, and her office found no evidence conflict declarations were being checked by third parties.

The CPA usually posts its minutes within four weeks. The Compass will report the outcome of deliberations on this application when they are made public.