Where do citizens appeal
“… THE CARE of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government...” opines Thomas Jefferson. In chatting with writer of social and political affairs, Kadian Joiles, happiness was the ‘big yard,’ in which there was a huge tree that overhung on to the sidewalk bringing shade as she walked across the city. “…Highrise developments are killing trees and the ‘Big-yard’ where children played…”, she bemoaned. Julian ‘Jingles’ Reynolds and his Sounds and Pressure team are trying to preserve as a music heritage site the ‘Big-yard’ on Orange Street as a part of the Downtown Kingston Music District.
Poet Laureate Lorna Goodison in ‘To us all flowers are Roses’ described a breadfruit tree at 117 Orange Street inside a central brick-paved courtyard surrounded by “…many-celled tenements…”. Olive Senior, another Poet Laureate, celebrated the tree during her tenure, and wrote in her ‘Encyclopaedia of Jamaican Heritage’ about such ‘Urban-yards’ snubbed by the elite yet providing a social unit. Bob Marley reggae ‘Government Yaad in Trench Town’ provides further perspectives on the gamut of these communal spaces associated with trees. They remain identifiers of Jamaican life and culture. Citizens cry out frequently to stop environmental destruction and for care for human life and happiness. Yet, they are being ignored with increased intense development activities destroying natural environment continuity and community comfort zones across the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA). Where do citizens appeal?
In the 2017 Town and Country Planning (Kingston and St Andrew and the Pedro Cays) Provisional Development Order (PDO), Havendale and Meadowbrook fell outside of any Local Planning Area. Density was 75 habitable rooms (HR) per hectare (30 habitable rooms (HR) per acre) with maximum height at two storeys. Citizens are now asking, why have their neighbourhoods been allowed to morph into various configurations of high-rise multi-family residences?
When the 2017 PDO received Confirmation (CDO), in 2023 density legislation in Havendale and Meadowbrook immediately changed. Citizens are asking, does the law provide for us to be consulted before any such enactments? Density now stands at 125 HR per hectare (50 HR per acre) extending from Mannings Hill Road across Red Hills Road to border along Molynes Road, covering all areas in between. Additionally, there is another higher density of 250 HR per hectare (100 HR per acre) such as along Mannings Hill Road extending on to Border Avenue and Highland Close.
Although the 2023 CDO reads on page 710 that “…density shall not exceed 125 habitable rooms per hectare (50 hr/a) in the Havendale area … building heights of three storeys is recommended. However proposed building heights of four storeys will require a streetscape, public consultation, and a community survey…”. However, these citizens have been denied ‘Access to Information’ over developments about to commence or are in train. In vain, they have written and visited with the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) Mayor, Chief Executive Officer, City Engineer, and various committees.
Generally, citizens are asking, is there anyone who cares? Why should we sell or relocate, and to where, because a high-rise apartment is now peering down inside our bedrooms and bathrooms?
Yet these citizens have also been actively appealing to the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), objecting to the influx of multi-family developments without any of the requisite conformity.
Objections include developments permitted inside areas set aside for surface water percolation, currently creating huge flooding issues for all, including for the new development under construction.
Havendale and Meadowbrook citizens have voiced that in the 2018 Building Act are provisions to establish the “Building Appeal Tribunal.” This gives all citizens the right to appeal as any aggrieved person “…against a decision made by the Local Authority over type and scope of building work…”. Section 63 instructs that appeals shall be lodged within thirty days of the relevant decision being notified or longer at the discretion of the Tribunal. There is a prescribed fee. Appeals shall give both the Local Authority and the appellant represented by an attorney-at-law or any other person, the opportunity to be heard.
What has been the experience of these citizens? They were told that the Tribunal does not exist! They then hand-delivered letters to the responsible minister about establishing the tribunal and are still awaiting action.
Yet, as with so many other communities across the KMA, construction is proceeding unabated on all sides of the residences of citizens, some without modification of the existing covenants. In frustration of a system that seems to have failed, citizens are forced to mobilise personal funds to appeal through the courts.
Questions loom. If under the 2017 PDO, neighbourhoods were approved and sanctioned to become multifamily residences even while citizens objected, where are Stop Orders as enacted under Building Act Section 44? Are these being enforced when issued? When will demolitions under Section 45 commence? Do these previously non-existent densities that now are enshrined in the 2023 CDO have any legal standing, when there is written evidence that citizens were continuously objecting to such changes prior to the CDO?
On December 31, 2023 The Gleaner reported in ‘Housing inventory static as mortgage volumes decline’ that construction units remain unsold, with a build-up of new units for sale. There also was an estimated contraction in the building construction component due to a 66 per cent downturn in housing starts by the National Housing Trust. Fewer estate developments were approved in 2023, reflecting a decline of around 36 per cent in the volume of units.
Yet citizens continue to object actively to what they feel is an increase in new multi-family development notices and project start-ups in their neighbourhoods, without the governmental entities addressing their appeals. Such statutes and tribunals are being ignored. Citizens continually are grappling with secrecy by governmental agencies.
Muse on these extracts from the poem “Taller” by Melville Cooke, winner of the 2024 Edward Baugh Poetry Prize:
The Gleaner editorial of April 19 congratulated Leonard Francis on his promotion to the post of NEPA chief executive officer. Significantly, this advised, “…Mr Francis, be informed and led by the law – and the people’s interest…”.
“Kingston is getting taller And the living spaces getting smaller …
I memba Matalon build Portmore quad
Four flat house inna square
Dem say him hard
Now quad a go pon top a more quad
Hoist up inna de air Widdout no yard
An it name studio It name Air B&B It name investment …
As Kingston is rising
And our walls are closing in Stranger to the left of us Stranger to the right Stranger across the hallway This is living the uptown tall up way …