The planning board has refused to grant permission for several building projects including plans for new restaurants and houses next to the Scotiabank building near Grand Harbour roundabout.
More than a decade after planning permission was initially granted for four fast-food restaurants to be located next to the bank on the intersection of Crewe Road, Shamrock Road and South Sound Road, the Central Planning Authority has rejected a modified $1.2 million application by South Newbury Corp and Elegant Design Cayman for two restaurants and five two-bedroom townhouses on the site.
Traffic fears
Minutes of that CPA meeting show that planning permission was refused for two reasons: not meeting the minimum number of parking spaces and fears that the drive-through window for one of the restaurants, which was slated to be a Starbucks, would cause cars to queue back onto Crewe Road, resulting in traffic problems on an already busy road.
The National Roads Authority had previously expressed concern over the drive-through window near the entrance to the site and had pointed out that other drive-throughs on island, such as Burger King, Wendy’s, Popeyes and several banks, were located at the rear of properties so that queuing vehicles did not interfere with the normal flow of traffic.
The developers had already dropped plans for a second drive-through but said that they needed to keep at least one drive-through facility for the planned Starbucks on site, saying it would be a challenge without that option.
Another hospitality project which failed to get the green light from the planning board was a restaurant and bar for North Side Road, located east of the Over the Edge restaurant. The proposed 20-seater restaurant and takeaway was located in a Beach Resort Residential zone and was proposed by Martin Pilat and Claudia Ortega as developers, with TAG Group as consultants.
CPA deputy chair Handel Whittaker stepped aside from his position on the board to appear as objector alongside Raymond Whittaker to say that his family had lived in the area for 150 years and it was not an acceptable place for a restaurant.
The board refused the application saying that it was not in keeping with the character of the area in terms of intensity of use, and it would prevent surrounding landowners from enjoying the amenity of their properties. It also said that the application did not comply with the minimum required setback from the high-water mark or the rear setback and the case hadn’t been made for an exception.
West Bay development rejected
On the residential side, a $15 million application for 60 apartments, swimming pool and outdoor kitchen proposed for Genevieve Bodden Drive in West Bay was also turned down.
The 25,000-square-foot 90-bedroom development from NCB Group and Declan O’Brien architects, which included a children’s playground and dog park, was refused permission because, said the CPA, “the proposed apartments are not in keeping with the character of the area in terms of mass, scale and intensity of use … and this mass and scale is vastly out of character with the established development character of the area”.
Board members said that Genevieve Bodden Drive currently serves mainly around a dozen single-family homes and is not meant to accommodate the high volume of traffic which would be generated by the development. There were several objectors to the plans who raised issues of potential flooding and the density of the development.
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