Clarke pleads for return of PNP councillors to KSAMC building committee
Published:Wednesday | December 14, 2022 | 1:36 AM
Former Kingston Mayor Lee Clarke is calling for members of the minority caucus of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) to return to the Building and Planning Committee in order to better serve their constituents.
Councillors of the People’s National Party (PNP) had withdrawn from the committee in January over concerns about resolutions which they say were to be placed on the Order Paper for a January 11 council meeting.
However, the council members said they felt ignored by the current administration.
Attending the final monthly meeting of the KSAMC for the year, Clarke urged council members on Tuesday to “come back”.
Clarke, along with other councillors, had been given the floor to reflect on the year’s work accomplished by representatives.
Speaking with The Gleaner on the matter, Clarke said that councillors must confront head-on the issues affecting the electorate.
“If you look into the newspapers on Sundays ... you see that people are concerned about the high-rise [buildings] and the future of how they are going to live,” he said.
“So, I’m begging them, come back. Let’s reason, talk.”
Kingston Mayor Delroy Williams said that he was particularly excited about executing the next phase of the corporation’s strategic development plan.
He said that the implementation of an online query system accessible to residents allowed persons to view information on the processing and approval status of development plans.
“So if you want to query a street, you can go and type in the street name and you will see all the developments that are in the system that are on that street,” the chairman added.
Williams said that systems upgrades were being done to ensure that locals could find applications.
In addition, the mayor stated that in order to afford residents greater opportunities for their grievances to be heard, the KSAMC also launched a digital complaint system.
This system, he said, would allow for complaints to be carefully monitored so that they could be assessed during the approval process.
Williams disclosed that the corporation was 90 per cent complete with its internal building application system that will monitor inspection breaches and objections.
He noted that the system would be completed by next February.
Williams’ remarks come a week after lobby Citizens’ Rights to the City (CRC) intensified its advocacy for transparency in development approvals for high-rise apartments.
The group, which unites citizens from 29 associations and communities, requested in an open letter to Prime Minister Andrew Holness that the Government postpone its plan to confirm the five-year-old Provisional Development Order of 2017.
Additionally, the group requested that an online platform be created to access up-to-date records of all building applications, including outline planning permission, permit numbers of pending developments, results of applications (approved, denied or modified), stop orders and inspection reports.
Residents have cited increased traffic and noise, less green space, loss of privacy, blocked natural air flow and light as sources of concern.
Clarke said that the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) should divulge information on its plan for the next 20 years regarding infrastructural redevelopments.
“If people don’t know what is going to happen 20 years’ time, I know I’ll be dead and gone, but 20 years’ time, you put in these high-rise around Half-Way Tree [and] Constant Spring areas now, where the road going to come from?,” he questioned.
“I see the future with Miami-type roads, but then NEPA, the Office of the Prime Minister don’t present that to us (councillors) to see or for the people to see if that is their intention along with the high-rise ... because our roads are too narrow to take ... ,” Clarke added.