Appeal Against Decisionto allow new airstrip on Little Cayman fails
Editors Note:
Last Tuesday, 23 May Attorney W. S. Walker represented his client- his wife Janet Walker - in her appeal to an Appeals Tribunalagainst the Planning Authority of the Sister Islands, who grantedthe Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to construct a new airstripfor Little Cayman.
Sitting on the Tribunal were Magistrate Grace Donalds as Chairman,Moses Kirkconnell, a board Member of Cayman Airways, and retiredmanager of Cable and Wireless' operations for the Sister Islands,Burnard Tibbetts.
The CAA was represented by the Solicitor General.
The hearing began at 9:15 AM and terminated at approximately 12:30PM, with the Chairman advising verbally that the Appeal was dismissedand that written reasons will follow shortly.
The following is a prepared transcript of the appellants reasonsdelivered by Mr. Walker which was varied during his actual presentation.
"The Appellant having been aggrieved by a decision of theDevelopment Control Board communicated by letter of August 30,1999 granting planning permission to the Civil Aviation Authority,Grand Cayman for a Proposed Airport (Phase 1 - Runway, Taxiwayand Apron) on Little Cayman West Block 80A Parcels 88 & 97(030/99) (ASG), filed a Notice of Appeal on 9th September 1999with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Aviationand Planning Grand Cayman and copied the same to the parties aslisted hereunder on 15th September 1999.
Pursuant to Section 5 of the Development and Planning Law (appeal)Rules (1999 Revision), the Appellant hereby states that:-
The Grounds on which appellant relies in the above matter areas follows:-
That the decision of the Development Control Board is unreasonable.
The Application is premature.
Any planning application requires a plan of what is sought andin this case no detailed plan for the airport has been submitted,and the application is therefore premature. It is very difficultto comment in detail on plans which one has not seen - even thelength of the runway is not fixed and since there is room forexpansion, it could be lengthened at any time and turned intoa jet airport.
It is unreasonable to approve an application in this form as itdoes not constitute proper notice to the public in order to givethem the opportunity to object and is therefore an incompleteapplication.
About the only concrete thing in the application is that the CivilAviation Authority seek to change the location of the airportto Block 80A Parcel 88 & 97.
There is an excellent and under-utilised international airporton Cayman Brac, approximately 6 minutes away.
As is well known, Cayman Brac Airport is a modern jet facility.
Flight records show a very low utilisation of this facility. Ifly in regularly to Cayman Brac from Grand Cayman and Little Cayman.In the last three (3) years I have not seen another aircraft onrunway when I was there.
Cayman Brac Airport has recently (at considerable expense) hadits facilities up-graded in order to allow scheduled Internationalflights to serve the Island. This is a sensible decision and furtherestablishes the importance of the Cayman Brac Airport, althoughI believe these flights have been temporarily postponed.
It would be a waste of money for Government to build another mediumsized airport so near to Cayman Brac Airport which could in anyevent detract from the Brac's already low utilisation.
The location chosen for the new airport is not suitable.
Little Cayman has the Cayman Islands' only RAMSAR site, an internationallyrecognised protected bird colony with the largest Booby colonyin the Western hemisphere.
Experts including both the National Trust and the Department ofthe Environment have studied the flight paths of the birds andindependently came to the same conclusion, that the site liesin one of the flight paths of the birds. For jets this would beextremely dangerous. The proposed site shows room for expandingthe lengths of runway, presumably to accommodate jets in the future.This would almost without a doubt result in serious accidentsif a jet were to ingest a bird.
Statistics show that over the last thirty (30) years there havenot been any bird strikes on the present airport in its presentlocation.
The location selected by the Government will entail considerablework, at substantial cost (financially) and destruction of theenvironment. It will entail not only building the runway overmost inhospitable terrain (partly swamp, partly ironshore) butit will require the construction of access roads, a parking areaand buildings over the same type of terrain.
The Vision 2008 National Strategic Plan Strategy No 7, LittleCayman under the joint leadership of Mrs Janet Walker and Mr CroyMcCoy in their consideration of ...the uniqueness and specialneeds of 'Little Cayman - recommended (inter alia) that the Government...establish a safe, Day VFR, island style airfield, with a grassrunway on the present site which will serve the airlift needsof Little Cayman.' (Action Plan No. 2, P43).
This Action Plan sets out in detail the type of airport that wasrecommended and that it should be on the present location, whichshould be purchased by Government and that it be confined to lightaircraft use. Draft plans for a suitable airport were attainedto Strategy No. 7. One reason Vision recommended keeping the airportas a Day VFR airport was that airport lights would interfere severelywith nesting colony of boobies and frigate birds. As this is aninternationally protected area, any action taken locally musttake into consideration the importance of this colony.
If lights were needed for emergency after dark airport landingsor take off, either battery lights or kerosene flares could beused. When I first flew into Grand Cayman the runway had no lightsand the flight was delayed; We arrived after dark and keroseneflares were set out at the sides of the airstrip.
Out of keeping with the Character of Little Cayman.
The Vision 2008 National Strategic Plan (Strategy No 7) also setsout at length the need 'To implement immediately a set of planningregulations governing the roads, aesthetics, zoning, design anddevelopment to ensure that the unique character of Little Caymanis preserved and that minimal harm is done to the natural environment.'(Action Plan No.1 P42).
To build the planned airport would entail considerable damageto the environment and until detailed plans are submitted it isnot possible to tell whether it will be in keeping with the 'Uniquecharacter of Little Cayman'. It is important that the airportnot destroy the peace and quiet of Little Cayman which is itsmain attraction. If this was to happen and the Island loses itscharm, a serious decline could occur in local land values.
Strategy No 7 recommended that Government conduct a Tourism CarryingCapacity Study and that pending this study a moratorium be placedon all major development including the airport. (P 42, Strategy7.4). This study has not yet been carried out and may well recommenda restriction on the number of visitors to Little Cayman whichwould affect the size of the airport required.
ALTERNATIVELY, if the Tribunal are against me on this point, Isubmit that the action of the Development Control Board (for thearguments which I have stated earlier) is clearly unreasonable,to the extent not only that a reasonable Board would have cometo a different decision but that it is so unreasonable that noreasonable Board could have come to the decision made by the DevelopmentControl Board.
I accordingly ask: -
That the decision of the Development Control Board dated 27 August1999 approving the application of the Civil Aviation Authorityto build a new airport for Little Cayman on Block 89A, Parcel88 & 97 be overruled.
That the matter be referred back to the Development Control Boardwith instructions that they consider an application for a 'safeDay VFR, island style airfield, with a grass runway on the presentsite which will serve the airlift needs of Little Cayman', andthat full and comprehensive plans for an airport of this typebe submitted to the Board before the application is considered."
A figure of $2.5 million has been addressed as the cost to constructa new 3000 ft runway for Little Cayman. Some say the cost couldrun as high as $5 million. The 4000 ft Cayman Brac runway wasbuilt ten years ago.
It is not known when construction could begin on this new airstripor if the matter will now move to the Grand Court.