Pattaya slapped Sukhawadee House with two more demolition orders after the tourist attraction, already appealing previous violations for encroaching on public land, built two more structures the city says are illegal.
Pattaya began targeting Ban Sukhawadee in 2018, charging that more than 13 percent of the ostentatious mansion on Sukhumvit Road encroached on public land. After initially promising full cooperation, the attraction’s owner, Saha Farms Co. founder Panya Chotitawan has engaged in an asserted campaign of ignoring and appealing orders while simultaneously continuing to build on land Pattaya asserts is public, not private, property.
The city’s latest targets are two five-story concrete buildings under construction that reside on waterfront land that, city officials say, Panya doesn’t own.
Stop-work orders were issued, and notifications went up that no one was to use the structure and that both must be demolished.
Additionally, Pattaya engineers used fabric to mark off the public-land border, informing Sukhawadee executives that their fence must sit six meters back from that line.
Sukhawadee currently is appealing the 2018 demolition orders, claiming that the order was illegal because the mansion had used that land for 20 years without the city ever exercising its rights.
The appeal is now before Chonburi Land Department officials.
