THE United States Embassy has made an appeal to Local Government Minister Dean Peart following the Town and Country Planning Authority’s (TCPA) decision to refuse it permission to construct a three-storey building on its Liguanea property. The building will house the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which is currently located on Haining Road.

The TCPA has long been at loggerheads with the embassy following its failure to provide adequate parking for clients at its recently constructed Chancery building. According to the authority, 50 additional parking spaces would be needed for the USAID building.

“The proposed USAID building would generate the need for 50 additional parking spaces to the number required for the Chancery building and no provision has been made,” TCPA said, adding that “further development will affect the fulfilment of outstanding planning conditions of the approved Chancery building on the said site.”

But the authority has also argued that the site area for the USAID building “forms part of the proposed parking area” of the approved Chancery building.

“Therefore, this area would have been deemed to be reserved for parking. Parking for the existing development has not been satisfactorily established and the proposal, if permitted, would result in conflicting usage of the limited remaining land that is required for parking,” the TCPA stressed.

The TCPA also said that it could not approve the embassy’s application to access the USAID building from Bamboo Avenue, as this would be “in contravention of the intent of the approval for the Chancery building”.

“The intent was to allow access onto the site (from Bamboo Avenue) for emergency vehicles and diplomatic visitors only. In fact, there is no approved access from Bamboo Avenue for the previous development (Chancery building) as the matter is still outstanding,” TCPA explained.

In February, Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie pointed out that the removal of the US Embassy to Liguanea had caused “major traffic problems”. The mayor said then that the embassy had not met the conditions of the Building and Town Planning Committee in approving the construction of the Chancery building. He said that the embassy was required to provide parking off site for persons visiting the embassy.

“The plazas in Liguanea are feeling it. The embassy was to provide off-site parking but we are yet to see it,” he said.

McKenzie, in the meanwhile, has warned the embassy that the building application for the construction of the USAID building would not be approved until the condition to provide off-site parking for its visitors is met.

He told Tuesday’s council meeting that citizens were alleging that the embassy was continuing preliminary construction of the USAID building, despite a cease-work notice served by the KSAC on the embassy.

The mayor said that town clerk Lincoln Evans had been instructed to write to the embassy and seek permission for the city engineer and building inspectors to tour the property.