Laguna Del Mar owners to meet with DoE over seawall

Owners of the Laguna Del Mar condo have been told to meet with Department of Environment staff and planning officials to discuss their application for a protective seawall in the latest stage of this long-running planning battle.

There has been a seawall at the beachfront condo Laguna Del Mar ever since it was built in 1989, but the wall was badly damaged two years ago during Hurricane Ian.

Attempts to seek planning permission to reconstruct the 360-foot wall at a cost of $1 million ran into problems right from the start thanks to Laguna Del Mar’s location on the southern end of Seven Mile Beach, which is suffering badly from erosion.

Planning regulations specify that in a hotel or tourism zone, seawalls should be at least 130 feet from the high-water mark, but Laguna Del Mar’s damaged seawall is now only 38 feet away from that mark thanks to substantial beach erosion since the wall was originally built.

The application for a seawall has been adjourned several times over concerns for the potential effect on the environment. Members of the Central Planning Authority have now decided that the application should be postponed again so that a meeting can take place between DoE staff, the owners of Laguna Del Mar, the applicant’s consulting engineer and planning department staff.

Reacting to the decision, attorney Selina Tibbetts, who is acting for Laguna Del Mar, said the situation was frustrating but that she was “hopeful that a solution can be found with all parties sitting down together to try and find a reasonable way to move forward”.

While there is currently no sign of structural damage to the property, she said that her client will be asking for the meeting to be held “as soon as possible, given the urgency of the issue” and was optimistic that matters might progress faster with all parties in the same room together.

Without a protective seawall, Laguna Del Mar, like other properties along that section of Seven Mile Beach, is more exposed to the elements, particularly during hurricane season.

At the Central Planning Authority meeting on 9 Oct., committee members were told that delays in granting planning permission for the seawall had compromised the owners’ ability to protect the site, and that the cost of compensation should buildings end up being destroyed would be borne by the public if it was found that government bodies were responsible.

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

Denis Murphy, senior chartered engineer at APEC Consulting Engineers, who is working with the owners, told the same meeting that without the seawall, waves were breaking directly onto people’s homes and holiday apartments.