In a letter dated Oct. 19, Planning Commissioner Robert Mathes wrote to Licensing Commissioner Wayne Biggs to request that the business license for Grande Bay Resort condominiums in Cruz Bay be revoked because the property isn’t zoned for a hotel.
“It appears that the license was issued in error,” Mathes wrote.
According to paperwork from Planning, the property is zoned R-4, residential medium density. Planning spokesman Jamal Nielsen said Tuesday that a property to house a hotel must be zoned R-3, another residential medium-density designation.
Mathes said Tuesday that he signed the letter at the request of Planning’s staff and referred further questions to Marjorie Emanuel, who serves as the director of Planning’s Comprehensive and Coastal Zone Division.
Emanuel said that the property's owner, Bay Isles Associates, “always maintained” that it did not intend to run a hotel.
While Bay Isles may have maintained that is wasn’t going to operate as a hotel, internet travel forums indicate travelers were booking units as early as the summer of 2009.
On Tuesday, Grande Bay’s website listed resort and hotel specials that included an introductory special of 25 percent off the room rate and a promotion to stay three nights and get the fourth free.
Bay Isles' business license was issued Sept. 20. Mathes wrote in his Oct. 19 letter that the department became aware on Oct. 15 that Grande Bay did not have the proper zoning.
Emanuel said that Bay Isles will have to apply for a rezoning in order to operate the hotel.
Oh my God. I hate that place.
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