ALREADY ZONED FOR HOUSING

Nearly 40 per cent of 3,000 acres of prime farmlands in Innswood, St Catherine, that are at the centre of a firestorm over planned construction of homes by investors led by Michael Lee-Chin had already been rezoned for housing three years ago, documents from the state-owned SCJ Holdings show.

The 2017 St Catherine Development Order, which was confirmed in 2019, had recognised the changed character of the Innswood lands and the need for housing. At least 1,218 acres have been rezoned for housing, The Gleaner understands.

Cabinet issued a statement on Monday saying that the Government has not made any decision to sell the lands in question, pledging that any transaction, if executed, would be transparent and in keeping with lease terms for agricultural use only.

But while it says it awaits further briefings from SCJ Holdings and the National Environment and Planning Agency, Cabinet was silent on any rezoning of the Innswood lands for housing.

Agricultural stakeholders have resisted the prospect of losing arable lands to the booming housing market, arguing that investors might cash in on undervalued farmland prices.

However, an SCJ Holdings source said that those concerns were misplaced.

“It is to be noted that, consistent with the terms of the lease agreement, any purchase of the land, pursuant to this option to purchase, is to be at market value using the highest and best use of the land, which will be informed by the 2017 Development Order,” the source said.

Detailing the course of the land transaction, it is understood that on May 7, 2019, SCJ Holdings received an application from Lee-Chin to lease 2,758 acres of Innswood lands.

“The application, which proposed high-intensity farming employing a mother farm concept, was brought to the Land Divestment and Monitoring Committee of the board, and was one of two competing applications – the other from a private developer for housing,” the source said.

A committee reportedly determined that the best use of the land was for agriculture and rejected a request by Lee-Chin for an option to purchase the land, as well as a proposition that SCJ Holdings should stand the cost of land preparation.

But after what it described as a “supervening meeting”, at which the support of the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries were relayed to the company, the decision was taken by the board on July 5, 2019, to approve the grant of a lease, The Gleaner understands.

A lease agreement was signed on August 8, 2019, between SCJ Holdings and Model Agricultural Production Limited (MAPL), the subsidiary through which Lee-Chin's company, Portland Holdings, does agricultural business.

That allowed for the company to lease 2,656.8 acres of Innswood lands at a cost of J$10,000 per acre per annum.

Of that acreage, MAPL currently leases 372 acres up front and was granted an option to lease the remaining 2,284.8 acres over the course of three years of the commencement date.

MAPL was also granted an option to purchase the entire 2,656.8 acres, exercisable within five years of the commencement date, but the purchase price was agreed to be determined by valuation.

Just last month, on August 5, MAPL took up the option to lease the remaining 2,284.8 acres, but to date has not exercised its option to purchase.

However, another Lee-Chin affiliate company, which was not named, reportedly wrote to SCJ Holdings expressing an interest to purchase 1,000 acres of land for the construction of low- and middle-income housing units.

The Cabinet, in its media statement on Monday, said that the Holness administration was “extremely sensitive to competing demands for scarce land resources for housing and agriculture”.

That admission is an acknowledgement of the growing tensions between housing development and agriculture, with food security raised as a key imperative of the Government amid external shocks that influence inflation and supply.

“The Cabinet noted that there are established laws, policies, and procedures to transparently deal with the sale and development of government lands. The Cabinet reaffirmed that the established processes will be strictly followed in this matter,” the press statement said.

The statement comes days after the Opposition called for the Government to make full disclosure on the terms and agreements of the sale of agricultural lands to Portland Holdings Inc, citing concerns that the land has irrigation infrastructure, making it extremely high value for agricultural purposes.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated lease terms of US$10,000 per acre. That should have been J$10,000 per acre.

karena.bennett@gleanerjm.com