The following is an open letter to the Minister of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change Robert Pickersgill:

Dear Editor,

The Jamaican Institute of Architects (JIA) is concerned that permission has been granted for the demolition of the Grand Lido Hotel and for its replacement with a 600- to 800-room hotel. We understand that the proposed hotel design includes four-storey blocks and allows a setback from the high water mark of only 15.25 metres (50ft), and that it may even envisage rooms over water at Rutland Point.

The JIA is opposed to this development proposal on the grounds that it will establish a precedence that goes against the spirit of the Negril area’s unique, small- and medium-sized enterprise model of tourism development.

The JIA is concerned that approval of this new hotel development will:

* set a precedent for increased heights and densities along the coast

* exacerbate issues of public versus hotel access to the foreshore

* result in increased beach erosion

* further eliminate/diminish the protective coastal vegetative buffer

This intensification of development will lead to destruction of what the current 1959 Negril/Green Island Development Order describes as the “delicate balance of the environment”, and will have a negative impact on the visual beauty of the coast line. The reduced foreshore cannot be in the interest of the long-term health of the beach, nor can it contribute to a reduction in conflicts over the rights of public and private users. In times of sea level rise, and, in particular, under the prevailing conditions of serious beach erosion, the trend should be to increase rather than reduce setback from the water. In the interests of beach health and disaster mitigation, any new beach development should be mandated to preserve/replant as much natural foreshore vegetation as possible, and adequate foreshore width is therefore essential.

The JIA urges you to reconsider this development and to uphold the recommendations of the existing 1959 Development Order, which requires 150-ft setbacks from the high water mark and low-impact development footprints along the coast.

As the Development Order also mentions the preservation of buildings of historic and architectural merit, we believe that consideration should be given to the preservation of at least a section of the existing structures as the Grand Lido Hotel is of merit, being winner of the highest award for resort design in the JIA Awards of Merit 1992.

Your urgent attention to the matter is requested and the JIA awaits your timely response.

Ann Hodges

President

Jamaican Institute of Architects

jainstituteofarchitects@gmail.com