Dear Editor,

I find interesting the debate between the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the residents of the Lagoons in Montego Bay over the controversial development of a lot there.

The issue, as published thus far, has left a number of questions which, I have noted, NEPA has yet to answer, especially as it seems that the agency has broken some of its own rules.

In the Jamaica Observer article published on Monday, February 3, 2020, NEPA said its chairman, as well as the Beach Control Authority, Natural Resources Conservation Authority, and the Town and Country Planning Authority were “satisfied in their findings that the development approval was justified and that the contretemps was based on unrelated issues”.

Aside from the fact that this is a blatant disregard for the people of the community, and Jamaica at large, NEPA needs to say why it has not met the Lagoons committee’s request to see the drawings of the development at the centre of the dispute.

The Lagoons committee, I know, made this request from as far back as December 2017, when the house drawings of the lot owners were approved. However, despite the fact that the request had been made twice through the Access to Information Act, NEPA’s response was to point to Section 20 of the Act which stipulates that the stamped drawings relate directly to the business affairs of the applicant and may be exempt from disclosure.

In relation to the site plan, I surely have not seen the break in the submerged breakwater that it shows in reality.

If the necessary due diligence has been done, why won’t NEPA share the technical studies and the actual drawings completed by the lot owner’s architect?

I also wish to ask NEPA why it did not require a community meeting for such a development, and why did the agency not ask the lot owners to obtain written no-objection letters from their neighbours?

When will this taxpayer community of Lagoons get heard by NEPA?

Lagoons resident

Montego Bay