The Central Planning Authority has said that the legal opinion they sought from government’s legal department confirmed that objectors do indeed have the right to object to proposed changes to Cayman Enterprise City’s approved Planned Area Development (PAD).
The decision, shared 18 Dec., follows a submission from the Cayman Enterprise City attorney, Sammy Jackson that there were no grounds for objections at this point, because a Planned Area Development simply predicts what type of actual development will be sought in the future, it does not amount to actual physical development, which still requires planning approval under the Planning Regulations to develop any land.
The PAD or master plan for the proposed mixed-use development on the 75 acre property in South Sound includes residential, commercial, institutional, hotel and open space and was approved back in 2015, but since then, the developers have sought to make a number of changes to the PAD, including removal of the lake feature, repositioning of some of the higher buildings and the educational zone to the northern side of the property, and removal of a number of conditions including the need for a swale around the property to help contain flood waters.
The developers are also seeking to remove the need for a centralised sewerage system for the entire development and are requesting that septic tanks be permitted in the proposed residential development areas.
The objectors have raised concerns that the removal of the lake feature will lead to increased problems in the South Sound area with flooding. The developers on the other hand state that while they are obliged to ensure that the flood waters from their property are contained on their site, it is unreasonable for the objectors to regard their property as a floodwater sink and watershed area for neighbouring lands, and that they have the right to develop their land.
One of the parcels in the proposed development site abuts the land near the South Sound tennis club and objectors also do not want the developers to put in a road and right of way into that area. The developers point out that they paid for a road to be built on the northern side of the development, and commercial traffic for the mixed-use commercial zone will primarily utilise that road rather than South Sound, adding that any traffic passing by the community near the tennis club will be purely from residential areas, or to allow access for emergency vehicles.
Objectors also say that there are so many changes to the original approved PAD that it now effectively amounts to an entirely new application and should be treated as such by the CPA, who they say should request that the developer submit a new application.
The CPA will return in January to provide their decision on the amended PAD. The proposed Cayman Enterprise City campus development required a PAD because it was planned across a parcel of land that exceeded the 40-acre benchmark, as set out in the planning regulations and because the proposed development included commercial buildings in an area zoned Low Density Residential, effectively making the application a change of zoning under the Development Plan.
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