Calls for ‘managed retreat’ as erosion impacts coastal property

Multiple government agencies and “vested interests” met for “urgent” talks on the erosion of Seven Mile Beach on Monday amid fresh calls for ‘managed retreat’ of structures at the water’s edge.

The potential for a partnership between property owners and government along the severely impacted southern stretch is understood to have been on the agenda. On Friday, Ergun Berksoy, one of the residents in the affected zone pledged US$3 million to help find a solution to the problem.

He said, “We must join forces with this government”, adding that Cayman could not afford to wait any longer to act over the loss of its key attraction.

Meanwhile, a handful of demonstrators took to the streets at the weekend, to call for the beach to be saved and a more considered approach to development along the coastline.

Government has previously indicated that a strategy on managed retreat is needed before any funds can be committed for beach nourishment or other engineered solutions.

There have also been calls for more radical approaches to protect the beach and the accompanying public rights of way.

On Saturday, protesters gathered under the Camana Bay bridge with signs calling for a “managed retreat” – their argument being that seawalls and hard structures are interfering with the waves, causing the beach to further erode, along with their rights of way along the shoreline, and their opportunities for recreation and enjoyment of the seashore.

In response to a Compass enquiry requesting details about the government’s erosion meeting, the Department of Environment said that information “will need to come from the Office of the Premier, as it was a Caucus organized meeting.”

The Office of the Premier this week did not respond to requests for comment.

What would managed retreat involve?

A Department of Environment spokesperson told the Compass that it supports new policies on coastal development, regardless of whether beach nourishment takes place or not.

The department has previously indicated qualified support for a policy of allowing some restoration project to deal with erosion.

But it warns the wider issue will not go away.

“Managed retreat will likely have to form a part of the Government’s long-term plan to manage the national natural asset that is Seven Mile Beach,” the DoE spokesperson said. 

“If a decision is taken to put sand on the beach to solve the immediate problem of the total lack of a beach on southern Seven Mile Beach, then there are several policy areas that should, in the Department of Environment’s view, be addressed in tandem with that decision.

“These include changes to how we measure coastal setbacks and whether or not structures can be rebuilt once they are significantly damaged by storm and hurricanes.”

Currently, Development and Planning Regulations require that buildings and seawalls should be minimum of 130 feet from the high water mark in a hotel/tourism zone; however, exceptions have historically been granted in various cases and there are challenges over how the boundary line is measured.

As the Compass reported last year, the official ‘high water mark’ survey for many coastal properties is actually under water.

Can property owners be compelled to move?

Real estate broker Kim Lund of RE/MAX cautioned that asking private landowners, such as the Marriott which has lost its beach to erosion, to rip up beachfront decks and other owners to knock down buildings was “not realistic or reasonable”.

He said, “We can’t go back in time on heavily developed stretches of coastline. Reverse engineering a property is incredibly expensive.”

He added that a property “would have to be severely degraded and damaged before the government could step in and condemn it. So, if a patio or part of a ground floor unit was affected by surge or storm-driven waves, that would not typically meet the threshold for a building to be condemned.”

The loss of the beach is also increasing the vulnerability of the buildings from storm-driven waves. That is, in turn, leading to increased calls from the affected property owners to construct seawalls to protect their properties from the waves, even if that means building the walls well within the required setbacks of 130 feet from the high-water mark.

On 9 Oct., lawyers for the Laguna Del Mar property indicated at a Central Planning Authority meeting that they will consider legal action against government if they are not allowed to rebuild a seawall that is now only 37 feet from the high water mark.

“We have been waiting too long for this situation to be resolved,” said attorney Samuel Jackson. “People deserve the right to be able to protect their buildings.”

What are the arguments for managed retreat?

Melanie Carmichael, executive committee member of Sustainable Cayman, believes that government is open to the possibility of beach renourishment, but she said “the sticking point seems to be the landowners, who are unwilling to compromise and do what is needed to address the problem”.

She told the Compass she believes the solution has to “include moving the hard structures back from the active beach area, or creating wash-through ground floors, so the waves can move through freely during storms”.

She added, “Government has the scientific reports, and the evidence is clear that dumping more sand makes no sense unless we address the mistake and the root causes of the problem.”

Carmichael claims that in parts of coastal Florida, single-storey buildings along the shoreline are now being demolished “because no one will insure them anymore.” To support this, she referenced a video posted after Hurricane Milton that shows that the lower elements of larger buildings along the shoreline are being stripped to allow flood-through ground-floor zones.

She also believes “the calls from the condo owners for seawalls in the Cayman Islands are misguided because, in addition to further exacerbating the erosion issue, the walls themselves will eventually be undermined, and they too will collapse and fall into the sea”.

Is managed retreat already happening?

While there is no official policy, newer buildings that have cropped up to replace older properties are generally built further back and with less impact on the active beach zone. The construction of the Kimpton Seafire hotel in place of the Courtyard Marriott, which closed after Hurricane Paloma in 2008, is the clearest example – though that development sparked separate controversy over the re-routing of West Bay Road to facilitate the ‘retreat’.

Realtor Lund says that new buildings under construction along Seven Mile Beach are already incorporating greater setbacks from the sea and building up higher. Advocates of a more managed approach argue for changes to the planning law to compel this.

But, in terms of addressing the current issue of erosion along the southern stretch of beach, Lund said, “If we are talking about managed retreat along developed stretches of coastline, we will have to wait for the owners of the properties to decide for themselves whether their own property should be redeveloped.”

He added, “They sought and received planning permission from government … When these properties were developed, there was an ample beachfront in front of them. They built within the required setbacks.”

What are the current rules on coastal development?

While development regulations require minimum setbacks of 130 feet for seawalls and buildings along most of the southern section of Seven Mile Beach, the current Cayman Islands Development Plan 1997 also states, “the [Central Planning] Authority shall … take into consideration – the elevation of the property and its environs; the geology of the property; the storm and beach ridge; the existence of a protective reef adjacent to the proposed development; the location of the adjacent development; and, any other material consideration which the Authority considers will affect the proposal”.

Plan Cayman, which has been drafted but not yet approved, is eventually expected to replace the 1997 Development Plan.

The draft document, which sets out the long-range policies and guides the overall use of land in the Cayman Islands, includes the following reference to beachfront properties:

“The best way to conserve beaches is to allow them the space to move – in a seaward direction during accretion phases and in a landward direction during erosion phases.

“The prudent use of coastal development setbacks can ensure that space is provided for a beach to move naturally, both during normal events as well as infrequent hurricanes, thereby ensuring that the beach is conserved for all to enjoy and that coastal infrastructure remains intact.”

Carmichael is calling for developers to conduct comprehensive risk assessments before they build on areas that are vulnerable to storm surge and waves.

She says, “It is possible to build in these areas, for example, stilted structures might work, but right now we are literally burying our heads in what is left of the sand and ignoring what needs to be done,” which, she suggests, “is move up and back from the water’s edge, and adapt to the new reality of rising seas and more frequent storms”.