PROPERTY that government had nixed for housing development, because of flooding problems, has been sold to a private developer who is readying the same site for 50 townhouses that he plans to build there.

The property, site of the disbanded Watervale Operation Pride project, was the cause of major flooding in the residential middle-class neighbourhood of Havendale in St Andrew near six years ago.

The result was damaged properties, and where insurance covered repairs, increased insurance costs, along with, said one resident, a dip in real estate value.

Now the Havendale-Meadowbrook Citizens Association wants strong assurances from technical experts and the developer that the problems will not recur, and that adequate drainage will be in place to take the run-off away from their homes.

Flooding in September 1999 resulted in the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) abandoning the Watervale project. The Ministry of Land and Environment eventually sold the property to developer Christopher Wood for an estimated $30 million.

The 50 townhouses that he plans to build have been over subscribed, a resident told the Observer.

Sources say the units are priced at about $8 million.

The citizen’s association is not calling for the development to be disbanded, but wants assurances that their own properties will not be impacted and how already inadequate water supply would be shared with 50 additional households – fearing even more water lock-offs.

At a community meeting at the Meadowbrook Community Centre last Thursday night, the citizens insisted that Wood outline how he proposed to deal with the drainage and sewerage problems.

“I live on Chevy Chase and damage to my property as a result of the September 29, 1999 flood rains backing up water at Watervale, several premises on Coolwater Avenue and Chevy Chase were flooded,” said one resident.

“My claim on the insurance company was for $98,000. As a result of the flooding, the insurance companies increased the excess on properties damaged by the flood. The companies said that sections of Havendale are flood prone and this has affected real estate values in the area.”

Member of Parliament Deryck Smith, who showed a video of the flooding in 1999, said it was his intervention that closed down the Watervale project.

Smith said he wrote to then transport and works minister Peter Phillips for a survey of the hills to determine what was necessary to control the water, and to Easton Douglas, then minister of housing, asking him to stop the Operation Pride scheme.

“Easton abandoned the project,” he said Thursday night.

But: “Recently I heard that development is to take place at the same location and I advised people not to buy any house there.”

He added that he was not against development in his constituency, but would be insisting “that no development takes place there until all the technical people give the assurance that adequate drainage is in place.”

The developer has submitted subdivision plans and is preparing to develop the site even though the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation is still vetting the plans.

Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told the meeting that when the KSAC learned that marl was being laid on the site, “we served a cease development notice on site,” he said.

“If work continues on the development we will have no choice but to take them to court,” he said.

Citizens who said that they were concerned that the marl has raised the catchment area by four feet and could cause flooding during heavy rains, have asked the developer to have it removed.

The Water Resources Authority (WRA) is similarly concerned and has passed on its assessment to National Environmental Planning Agency (NEPA).

Andreas Heidel of the WRA said that it was important for there to be no subsurface discharge from the sewage disposal system, adding that the ground water was already compromised and had high nitrate levels, which may be due to inadequate sewerage disposal.

On the question of the drains, Heidel said the capacity of the existing infrastructure to handle increased flow had to be determined.

The NEPA representative at the meeting said that the agency in principle had no objections to the townhouse development, but said the project needed to have an environmental permit and building and planning approval.

In the meantime Wood, the developer is confident that the drainage system he plans to build will solve the flooding problem.

“We have a very extensive and comprehensive draining system,” he told the meeting.

It incorporates a paved drain which runs northerly on the property right down to the south, and three to four large soakaways that will be used to get off at least 60 per cent of water “from a worst case storm situation,” said Wood.

The remaining water would be dispersed in culverts leading to the pave drain along Watervale Avenue, he said.

Wood said that the on site soakaway systems, including on site and off site drainage, were designed “with the aid of the National Works Agency (NWA).”

A letter signed by Winston Hartley at the NWA said the agency had no objections to the drainage plan, subject to 12 technical conditions.

– edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com