NEPA acts as Central Avenue residents push against concrete operation plant
THE NATIONAL Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has stepped in as longtime residents of Central Avenue in the area often called Camperdown pleaded for relief. At issue is a previously unused tract of land that is now being used as a holding site for construction equipment and the operation of a concrete batching plant.
NEPA slapped an enforcement notice to cease and desist unauthorised activities on the owner of the property, Fitzwarien Ripton Rodgers. He is the developer behind Jamaica’s tallest building, a 20-storey luxury apartment development effort at Waterloo Avenue in St Andrew.
Two NEPA officers with a police patrol for support visited the site on Wednesday for at least the third time in a month to serve the notice that has brought relief to long-suffering residents of apartments surrounding the troublesome site.
This is not the first time that NEPA has had to serve an enforcement notice at the location. Notices were served on February 26, 2014, on Phils Incorporated “as a result of the company engaging in construction works without planning permission at 3 Central Avenue in Kingston,” a NEPA release read.
Number three Central Avenue has been for many years left unused since it serves as a natural drain for storm water from the nearby Constant Spring and Shortwood roads. The Bombay mango and brown skin plum trees used to serve up rewards to schoolchildren who would use the lot as a shortcut.
Over the years, many apartment complexes and gated multi-family dwellings have been erected. In addition, the Queen’s High School for girls is nearby, just across the road from the front gate of the offending premises.
Many of the sources for this story hark back to the days when birdsong was enough to temper the drone of vehicular traffic from the nearby East Avenue and Constant Spring Road. They say all this changed in September 2023 when fortified fencing started going up around #3 Central Avenue. This was about a month after the property was acquired by businessman Fitzwarien Ripton Rodgers from Donte and Angelique Brown for US$2.75 million.
At its meeting of October 17, 2023, NEPA granted permission for construction to take place at the location. Ripton Contracting submitted application Number: 2023-02017-EP00305. It was granted an environmental permit “for the proposed construction of housing projects 51 houses or more (119 units) at 3 Central Avenue, St Andrew”.
At the same time, checks with the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) indicate that a request to do construction at the location has been denied. Application #23-0200 1-PB00590 for a proposed multi-family residential development was denied on 9/12/2023.
The February 7, 2024 enforcement notice from NEPA comes after months of complaining on the part of nearby residents.
Sunday Business obtained verified footage with a time stamp of 2:13 a.m. that showed heavy equipment operating under floodlights, generating an unbearable cacophony that was the soundtrack of the footage. Still, other footage showed a large front-end loader operating at daytime, shovelling up bucket after bucket of aggregate and sand, depositing the contents into a hopper, followed by a crane lifting industrial size bags of cement and shaking out the contents completely, generating a tall plume of dust.
This was followed by the roar of a cement mixer operating at full tilt, accompanied by a deafening clanging that shook the very foundations of nearby apartments.
While this was happening dwellings closest to the operation had to keep windows shut while running air conditioning and air purifying devices. Those doing laundry had to abandon the prospect of drying clothes outside as the settling dust turned everything on the line grey.
The machine generating the almighty noise is a mobile volumetric concrete mixer (VCM). The NEPA team on one of its visits launched a drone from adjacent premises to observe the activity and machinery on the premises.
Responding to questions NEPA reported their findings.
“There were activities observed which pointed to the mixing of concrete on the site. This included the observation of two volumetric concrete trucks, two concrete mixer trucks, and the storage of aggregates (sand and crushed stones). In addition, heavy-duty equipment that’s used in the construction industry was parked on the site,” NEPA said in response to questions from Sunday Business.
The volumetric concrete mixers in question can produce up to 10 cubic metres of concrete in a single batch, but this can be limitless with constant use. The leading manufacturer of this equipment is Zimmerman Industries Inc.
A construction industry expert, who did not wish to be named, says “while the VCM is versatile because of its mobility and efficient because of the ability to change the type of concrete mix being produced, it is notorious for its dust pollution and is a painful noise nuisance in an urban environment,” the expert told Sunday Business.
“It is a wicked imposition on the folks in that area and the authorities need to act post-haste,” he added.
Prior to the issuing of the enforcement notice, Sunday Business contacted Rodgers, the owner of the premises.
His pushback was immediate, brutal and bellicose. He admitted to storing heavy equipment at the site but said he does not do concrete mixing there.
Pressed that there is video evidence of the activity, Rodgers said there was therefore no need to contact him and that any further contact should be through his office; before cutting off the call.
Sources indicate that the posted NEPA notice has been torn down and that some amount of equipment activity is continuing though not at the same levels. The enforcement notice takes effect on February 12, 2024. Rodgers has until then to cease and desist, failing which NEPA can take further action.
“Post-enforcement investigation will be conducted, and should there be non-compliance, the agency has the option to escalate enforcement action, which may include legal action,” NEPA said.