Mayor of Kingston Councillor Desmond McKenzie warned yesterday that any further development in the Long Mountain area of the capital must have the full approval of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC).

“The KSAC welcomes new housing developments, and we are willing to work with private or public sector agencies to increase the housing stock. But we are going to insist that any further development in the Long Mountain area must have the full approval of the KSAC,” the mayor said as he declared open Caribbean Design magazine’s one-day symposium on urban development and architecture at Devon House.

The symposium, held under the theme, ‘The Role of Urban Planning and Architecture in a Changing Caribbean Culture’, focused on the importance of urbanisation in the changing environment.

The mayor used the opportunity to deal with a number of concerns raised about the Long Mountain project and the failure of the developers to seek the requisite approval of the KSAC in the past.

He said that the corporation was currently locked in talks with the developers on a number of breaches which had been committed on the project. He said that the KSAC would use all the resources available to it, “to preserve the integrity of the building and town planning regulations of the city”.

“We will not be bypassed in terms of any further development in this area,” McKenzie said. “If there are plans for further development, I am expecting that all the requisite approvals will be sought before any construction commences.

“The developers will have to convince us of accessibility to the development, because the area is already heavily crowded with vehicular traffic and any new development, if there are no proper consultations, will only worsen the situation.”

He said that in the future the KSAC would not issue any order to release titles, and would not accept the responsibility for maintenance of any development that failed to comply with the terms and conditions of an approved plan.

“I am hoping that good sense will prevail and that we will be able to deal with these issues without having to go to the extreme. But, as I said before, the rules will have to be observed,” the mayor added.

He said that a sustainable development plan for the Corporate Area was being prepared by the major stakeholders, including the KSAC, the Parish Development Committee, National Environment and Planning Agency and the Ministry of Transport and Works, which should become public in the next four months.

Last year, the KSAC had to intervene in the issue of reports of raw sewage from a receptacle station in Long Mountain flowing into the yards of residents in the Beverly Hills area. There are frequent reports of breakdowns in the treatment plants.

There are also severe traffic problems created by the limited access to the project with little scope for expansion of the roads. The traffic from Long Mountain empties into Monroe Road, which is already congested.

The Caribbean Design Symposium featured presentations from a number of architects, engineers and planners, including Basil Fernandez, Patricia Green, Beverline Brown-Smith, Alwyn Bully as well as Albert Vernon, publisher/editor-in-chief of Caribbean Design magazine.

– balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com