Last week, 29 citizens’ associations and individuals made a desperate plea to Prime Minister Andrew Holness to have a look at the havoc that could potentially come from the plethora of high-rise buildings shooting up all over Jamaica, especially in the capital city.

We give our most robust support to their call on Mr Holness to hold off the imminent confirmation of the Provisional Development Order of 2017 and give the citizens a chance to express their concerns before their single-storey homes are encircled by these concrete behemoths.

More than anything else, we urge the prime minister to shun the inconsiderate and offensive approach by the State-run National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), which has rather scornfully told the homeowners to “live with it” because that’s how cities grow.

The citizens’ associations have strenuously argued that there has been a lack of transparency on the part of the Government regarding the approval processes for these multi-storey structures in residential neighbourhoods, and have formed themselves into a grouping called Citizens Rights to the City to speak for them.

Their concerns, which we don’t think are unreasonable, include things like increased traffic and noise levels; the blockage of natural air flow and light; increased run-off from paved surfaces adding to more flooding; increased garbage and more pressure on already inadequate water supplies; decreased green spaces; and, not insignificantly, loss of privacy by homeowners.

The credibility of these concerns is borne out by long and hard experience living in Jamaica. Homeowners have seen their biggest investment lose value and the dream of owning a home turn to nightmare because of people who couldn’t care less. We did not expect the head of NEPA, Mr Peter Knight, to take their concerns so casually.

“Any city in the world, you look around… cities develop around you. You may wish not to be part of the development of the city, and you may want to move further to the suburbs — that is fine — but a city is going to develop around you,” media reports quoted Mr Knight as telling the citizens.

This is preposterous. Indeed, some would say insensitive and offensive. If this is even how cities develop, Mr Knight might wish to be more circumspect in how he treats with the genuine worries of people who pay his salary.

It isn’t that hard to imagine how painful it is, for example, to have lived for years in a single-storey dwelling with privacy afforded by fencing, only to have to wake up to a very tall building that completely destroys such privacy and is life-changing overnight.

Not to mention the routine breaches of building approvals often aided and abetted by corrupt officials. According to the chief technical officer of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), of 183 developments carried out between this January and March, more than 30 of them were built without the approval of the KSAMC.

Of that number, 14 developers were issued cease to work orders, 13 were being investigated, and eight were deemed as special operations. Sixty per cent of the developments sought to be regularised, 25 per cent had stopped construction, and another 25 per cent of them had ignored the cease to work orders issued.

NEPA needs to get off its high horse.