The proposed International Mall Ltd. development along Walkers Road in George Town has ignited frustration and anger on social media after heavy equipment recently started clearing trees – an action developer Sam Thevasaeyan has defended as the project awaits appeal.
The initial planning application for the development was approved by the Central Planning Authority but is now subject to an appeal by the objectors to the development.
The developer, who previously built City Plaza on Crewe Road and City Walk on Maple Road in George Town, applied last year for permission to erect three, two-storey commercial buildings and seven, two- and three-storey townhouse buildings on the 4.36 acres of land.
As a result of the application, more than two dozen people lodged objections to the proposed $40 million development, which would be located on the vacant land near the intersection of Walkers Road and Ellery Merren Drive in the vicinity of Vigoro Nursery.
In its feedback to the Central Planning Authority with regard to the application, the Department of Environment noted that the site is on “primary habitat”, which represents more mature growth and typically includes dry shrubland and forests.
“These habitats are often very old, existing long before humans, and may consist of endemic and ecologically important species,” the department wrote.
“Primary habitat is in severe decline, particularly in George Town, and becoming a scarce and highly threatened resource as a result of land conversion for human activities island wide.”
The department advised the building designers to reconsider the entire site layout to preserve as much native vegetation as possible.
Under the existing planning laws and regulations, after the initial approval, the developer is legally allowed to clear most of the trees while an appeal is pending.
Thevasaeyan, who said he checked with the Planning Department before he started clearing the property and was told it was allowed, said he also cares about the environment greatly and he tried to do the right thing.
“We gave the silver thatch palms to the garden nursery [Vigoro] next door, and we kept a lot of Christmas palms for ourselves, and we plan to use them on the property and for our other developments,” Thevasaeyan said.
The developer added that he is Caymanian and that people have been going on his property without permission. He said he has now received death threats, which he has referred to the police.
“If the owners, the Merrens and the Watlers, had wanted to keep the land, they could have done so, or they could have sold it to government,” he added. “But they sold it to me, and I have invested $5 million in the property and now I am paying $40,000 a month in finance charges.”
Despite being legally allowed to do so, Thevasaeyan’s clearing of the property has ignited a firestorm of criticism.
When pictures of the cleared land and endangered silver thatch palms started appearing on social media, numerous people voiced their frustration.
“The island was once so beautiful, and they are slowly paving over paradise,” said Jeff Freeman on Facebook in one of dozens of comments.
“Sad to see this “progress;” the seller is as guilty as the buyer,” said Jesse Arch in one Facebook comment, while Lorna Bush described the land clearance as “a national tragedy” in another comment.
In response to the clearing of trees on the land, Frank Roulstone, director of the National Trust for the Cayman Islands, said, “The trust is obviously saddened and disturbed by the wholesale destruction of our natural and built heritage every day on all three islands.
“Much of the damage is irreversible and our natural ecosystems are being replaced by sterile concrete and asphalt wastelands decorated with non-native plants imported from other countries. We need to address this as a country, as the trust as a single entity is powerless to do anything much about it.”
The executive committee of Sustainable Cayman said, “We’re increasingly alarmed by the pattern of mature native trees being cleared for new developments – often with little effort to retain existing shade or biodiversity.”
The non-profit organisation added, “Current planning regulations fall short. Replanting after clearing 50+ year-old silver thatch, guinep or almond trees is not a solution. These trees provide real carbon storage, shade, food and wildlife support – functions that take decades to replicate. We believe Cayman must revise its planning laws to require genuine biodiversity retention.”
Sustainable Cayman suggests a minimum 20% native vegetation retention on commercial and condominium-scale projects.
“This should be separate from any landscaped communal areas and designed to protect the ecological character of the site,” it said.
“More importantly, we should be encouraging a shift in mindset: Build with nature, not over it. Planning should require developers to work around large endemic and native trees and accommodate existing vegetation as part of the design – rather than giving permission to clear sites completely and planting back later for show.”
The project is due to go before the Planning Appeals Tribunal in October.
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This has happened many times before , Caymanians selling their heritage to the highest bidder, with only one motivation in mind, it is evident thy did not approach the National Trust to see if they could buy it.
This is unfathomable!
Come to the Nothside. New developments are ripping up 10’s of acres and the first step is new roads. 2 feet from rare wetlands. Just off of Rum Point dr. 45A183 – 45A192 and owned by CROWN ACQUISITIONS WORLDWIDE LTD. Development is fine but to see standing water wetlands with no buffer is the crime. Once lush lowlands is now going to be gravel lawns. We just need a smarter plan not suburbia.
there is no plan.
it has been going on for decades
The developer shows limited understanding of the flora that was destroyed. A Xmas palm is actually an invasive species, not native to our flora.
https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.56193
Was there any plans to save the endemic orchids besides the invasive Xmas palms?
This leaders of this island have intentionally created a developer oriented “system” that attracts unscrupulous developers from all over the world to come here and make “their mark”. Here in my own street on South Sound road we have the horrendous Bahia and Vela developments that my wife and I refer to as communist block style buildings. Anyone with enough money can buy themselves Caymanian citizenship but as you can see on this real https://www.instagram.com/reel/C71f_jVO0Oy/ this developer actually is from Sri Lanka and has been moving around places to find “business opportunity”. There are hundreds of developers like this now operating on Cayman and all their developments create a market of supply that needs real estate agents, landscaping and other businesses that add zero value to the island, its just dividing what is left in smaller and smaller pieces for the people already here.
The way I see it, the only people who are winning here are the people who sell their land (short term profit) and the developers who will go elsewhere once I they have destroyed this place. No use to complain about it here, this will just keep getting worse without a different policy. Dont blame the developer, if not him there are thousands of others like him, equally greedy and uneducated on the natural world…
Hear, hear.
It’s the peak of hypocrisy, letting people act like this, and parallelly dare and talk about “sustainability”, and building windmills to turn sun energy into electricity – while there is NO infrastructure to store and transport that “sustainable” (?!) electricity on Your beautiful island! Wake up, open Your eyes, look around the world, and LEARN, BEFORE destroying the only heritage You have: The REST of environment on Your islands! ALL mistakes possible, have already been made elsewhere on the globe – it’s not necessary to repeat them! Cheers, Kuno
Did the local owners (it was stated elsewhere they are a well-known Caymanian family) give the National Trust an option to buy the land before they sold it to Mr. T? Perhaps this should be part and parcel with selling all large parcels of land (and in particular virgin land) destined to be high density commercial and residential to overseas (and local) Developers. If so, I think the National Trust could have had a fundraising campaign the buy the land and save this little virgin forest from destruction. I, am not a wealthy person but would have been happy to donate something to save this land. It is a shame what is happening with the rate and unreasonable amount of high density development leaving not much for future generations. As a person living in Cayman for 55 years with generations of Caymanian ancestors, I can only shake my head in amazement at what is allowed to take place here, especially in the last twenty years………all in the name of the almighty dollar.
Hi Sheila, I wrote a comment on this already but just want to respond to your point about local owners selling to the national trust. Every year some owners of land (Caymanian but also foreign) reach out to the trust to sell or donate their land so what you are describing does happen. Of course you have many different types of people and not all people are “enlightened”. One part of the equation here is that the current system solely relies on this part and that is a recipe for disaster. The landbanking by the trust cannot be the sole strategy of a country like Cayman to protect its environment. The government should using zoning laws and designate certain areas of high ecological value as natural park etc. The government can use funds from the Environmental Protection Fund ( a slush fund that is full of cash but has been used to fund silly things like landfill expansion, salary increases of ministers and parking lots) to pay the owner a fair amount to take such land of their hands instead of letting such land enter the speculative open market. Furthermore, the govenment should now replace the entire CPA with people who understand the environment instead of what is currently there: a builder lobby. The CPA is a misguided bully. They tried to sue me for having a chicken coop (they lost) while they rubber stamp massively out of place developments like Bahia… This is where the real issues of this island are in my view.