Choice is good. Entrepreneurship is even better. Small- and medium-sized businesses are not only crucial and important but contribute to the gentrification of neighbourhoods and areas; effectively boosting the development of urban identities and sub-cultures.
La Maison D'Hotes describes itself as a Luxury Guest House with 20 personalised rooms and a French Restaurant in Jumeirah. They were shut down last month by the Dubai Municipality. The municipality cited their location in a residential neighbourhood and lack of appropriate approvals as reasons for the closing. This is their story:
In early 2007, Maison D'Hotes' lawyer receives pre-approval from the Dubai Tourism & Commercial Marketing Department (DTCM). In what would later prove to be disastrous advice, he advises his clients to go ahead and open the hotel with this pre-approval as the documents should arrive shortly afterwards. The documents do not arrive shortly afterwards. The owners of the hotel begin following up directly with the DTCM and the municipality. After several appointments, meetings and a site visit, during which engineers and photographers examine the hotel's location and building structure, Maison D'Hotes receives assurances that their business is exactly the kind of business that both DTCM and the municipality would like to promote. However, they are also informed that there are several projects that are going to affect the Jumeirah area, such as the Canal and the Garden city, and are duly requested to remain patient with respect to receiving the missing paperwork until the related zoning and survey planning is completed.
At the beginning of 2009, Maison D'Hotes receives a letter from the municipality requesting the payment of fees; hotels in Dubai are subject to municipal and hospitality fees. Basically, Maison D'Hotes does not receive the approval from the DTCM to be licensed as a hotel because DTCM was awaiting confirmation from the municipality that the hotel's location could be zoned appropriately. And so, the municipality's zoning seemed to be the main issue. Six months later and with much communication throughout, Maison D'Hotes is told they must shut down as the licence has been rejected due to the inability to rezone that specific location. Luckily, they are exempted from paying the fees since the licence was never issued. Though the hotel still has guests, the municipality switches off the electricity on December 22. Maison D'Hotes gets an extension till January 15 to check out its guests in an orderly fashion.
Hit and miss
Commercial activities and their related zoning in Jumeirah remains a grey ‘hit and miss' issue till today.
The municipality is not in the wrong, at least not legally. However, Maison D'Hotes was not a loud hotel and did not disturb the neighbourhood. In fact, it was usually completely silent by 8pm. Why it had to be shut down is beyond my comprehension. While Dubai continues to explore its options on which business model it will pursue in a post-property-driven economy, many call for a return to its role as a trading and tourist hub. Well here is my take on hubs: they have a variety of options. Maison D'Hotes was a manifestation of that variety. It provided an alternative to your three-star exotically named and themed Bur Dubai hotels and the overwhelming five-star tower and resort hotels on Shaikh Zayed Road.
If the government continues to fail to understand the value proposition in such fantastically inspiring Dubai success stories then it is slowly eroding one of its strongest and most unique features: The freedom to start good, decent businesses that become internationally recognised and sought-after products and services. Jumeirah, specifically, has proven to have this capacity, playing host to the Lime Tree Cafe, international fashion designer Rami Al Ali (coincidentally showing in Rome today), the Sho Cho's sushi bar and the One furniture store, among many others. Just because Maison D'Hotes' zoning approval was missing a signature doesn't mean that its fate should be any different. After all, it did not upset the neighbourhood's mood and social fabric. The next three to five years will be challenging for everyone. Regulators should inspire entrepreneurship, not hinder it. If they fail to do that they will suddenly discover that they will have much less to regulate.
This is not a Jumeirah-specific phenomenon. Many art galleries and other creative enterprises in Al Quoz's industrial area continue to struggle with regulation and zoning. The municipality will rightly cite that it is merely maintaining Dubai's zoning rules in order to ensure that what was meant to be residential remains so and what was meant to be industrial remains so too. But cities evolve, zones change and new contexts are found with alternative prospects. The question is, can government keep up with the pace of its constituency or will society have to subsidise government policy?
Mishaal Al Gergawi is an Emirati commentator on socio-economic and cultural affairs in the UAE.
