The Central Planning Authority has given permission for Rum Point Club to continue operating a restaurant on its premises. It comes after the hotel owner argued that, as local residents had kept the property operating while the borders were closed, they should continue to be served.
According to meeting minutes, the ‘owner’s kitchen’, which originally was slated to cater only to guests and owners of residences at Rum Point Club, has been operating as a restaurant for people who are not staying at the property.
In the application for the after-the-fact change of use, the applicant said the “underlying request is for us to be permitted to allow our neighbors in North Side to continue to dine at our facility”.
The applicant said the Rum Point Club Residences opened for business in late January 2020, but soon shut down again when COVID-19 restrictions were put into place and Cayman’s borders were closed.
“Lockdown soon ended but travel restrictions barring tourist arrivals continued up until very recently. The staycation business thrived, allowing local residents to enjoy hotel facilities that otherwise would have either been booked by tourists or simply unaffordable,” the applicant stated. “The result was that Rum Point Club Residences was sustained by local patronage. Our business was sustained and our staff of 20 Caymanians (zero permits) continued to be employed and did not require Government stipends.
“Our planning approval provides for an owner’s kitchen intended to serve the needs of our
owners and guests. Implied in this approval is the prohibition against allowing access to
anyone who is not an owner or guest of an owner. Now that the immediate cloud of
COVID has effectively passed, we will be required to turn away the very people who kept
us going during the hardest of times. We think that this is wrong.”
In its decision following the 22 June meeting, the CPA agreed to allow for a modification of the site to allow a restaurant with 1,017 square feet of area on the ground floor, but only if Rum Point Club adds three more parking spaces.
Objectors pointed out that the Rum Point Club has twice previously applied for, and been denied, permission to operate an on-site restaurant on the grounds of inadequate parking spaces.
There are 49 parking spaces at the site, and the CPA says 52 spaces will be needed to accommodate the restaurant.
At the meeting, Derek Serpell, for the applicant, sought a variance regarding the number of parking spaces required, and owner Joe Imparato told the CPA that 64% of the customers who stay at the Rum Point Club do not have cars and so additional parking was not required. He also noted that there was a shuttle offered by the Rum Point Club to George Town to bring customers to the property.
However, objectors at the meeting said there was no guarantee that patrons would not have a car and that, over the last two years, when there were no tourists on island, parking at the site had been “horrendous”. They also said that, with more people working at the Rum Point Club, there would be more staff cars, which would exacerbate the parking situation.
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