Prendergast: MoBay has not developed to its fullest potential
Published:Thursday | November 3, 2022 | 12:09 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
DR PATRICK Prendergast, campus director of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Western Jamaica campus, says inconsistent execution of development plans has stymied the optimal growth of the western city over the years.
Prendergast gave the assessment during an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday, ahead of the upcoming second biennial Caribbean Sustainable Cities Conference to be held at the Hilton Rose Hall Hotel from November 16-18.
The conference will focus on the Caribbean’s attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, particularly as it relates to environmental sustainability, safety and security, and technological transformation.
“There are targets for education and targets for health, but we have not really set some specific targets for the development of the city. Take, for example, the One Bay for All Plans, where we have had presentations around those plans, we have had discussions, but I think we are not where we should be and not where we could be primarily because we have not been consistent with setting those targets and working through what it would take to get there,” the UWI academic argued.
He was referencing the One Bay for All Sustainable Action Plan for Montego Bay, which was drafted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2015 under its Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative.
The plan was created as a detailed guide and model for local decision-makers to take future actions for a revitalised and reconnected city and citizenry, and to encourage more public participation towards sustainability through transparency and promotion of good governance and accountability.
CONCERN
Prendergast’s comments echo a previous concern raised in 2018 by the late Nathan Robb, a former president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who argued that there was no existing development plan for Montego Bay or the wider parish of St James.
At that time, Robb had recommended that city planners revisit the Greater Montego Bay Redevelopment Plan, which was created in 1996 but was never implemented despite an injection of some $12 million from the National Housing Trust to revive the plan.
In 2018, the One Bay for All Sustainable Action Plan was identified as a catalyst project from which a proper development plan for the western city could be forged.
Prendergast pointed to the opening of Montego Bay’s Harmony Beach Bark in May 2021 as an example of a community-impacting project which, despite its significance, still raises questions about long-term development.
“We have agencies that are doing things, including where we have seen what the Urban Development Corporation did with the Harmony Beach Park. But the question then is, how integrated are these efforts at reaching those development targets?” questioned Prendergast.
“Can we now go back and say that this is something we have put in place because the people need it and because it will enhance the environmental sustainability and safety of our city? How does it advance the communication that we want to take place, for us to communicate with each other as social beings?” he argued. “I do not think those things are as clearly articulated, and in a broader sense we have made some steps, but we are still a little behind.”