Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) City Engineer Xavier Chevannes has sought to allay concerns among Manor Park residents who accuse the local authority of evading questions about a proposed multi-family development at 2 Broadway Close, Kingston 8, to which they object.

Chevannes was responding to a Jamaica Observer report on the dispute last Friday highlighting the residents’ objection to any plans for a multi-family development in the area and their complaint that they have tried, without success, to get information from the city managers on the development.

Repeated attempts by the Observer, before publication, to get a comment from the KSAMC had also been unsuccessful.

In a letter, which they shared with the Observer, the residents claim that people who live on Broadway Close, Broadway Road, Harrow Drive, and Waterworks Road are worried about the proposed development.

CHEVANNES… we are in receipt of an application and we are in the process of setting up an objection meeting

“The developers posted a notice of intention to build at 2 Broadway Close on July 6, 2026. Within 48 hours the Broadway Mews Association formally requested the plans. The developer responded that the plans were in progress and would be provided once completed. Since then, there has been no further correspondence,” the residents said in the letter.

“Despite multiple requests, the community has been left in the dark. The developers were aware of the community’s interest within 48 hours of the notice going up. Yet they have chosen to ignore all subsequent requests for information,” the residents added.

They claimed that when the community submitted a formal request for plans under the Access to Information Act, they were told it could take up to 60 days to receive them.

“The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation informed residents they had only 35 days to file an objection. This creates an impossible situation where residents are being asked to object to a developer whose plans they have not seen, may not receive before the deadline, and which the developer has refused to share,” the residents claimed in the letter.

According to the residents, unofficial sources have indicated that a five-storey building is planned for the area, but efforts to get the authorities to either confirm or deny this had failed.
But, according to Chevannes, there are no such plans.

He told the Observer last Friday that at the time of the request from residents, no application for a building permit was made by any developer in relation to 2 Broadway Close. He said that what was posted on the fence of the property was a standard notice of intention to build.

Chevannes said that the application for a permit officially reached his desk on Friday and that the necessary meetings and consultation with residents will take place at the appropriate time.
“It’s a small development, less than 15 units, which is a mixture of town houses and apartments. Without saying much, the town houses are two-storey and the apartments are three-storey. The maximum floor height that is proposed is three floors,” Chevannes said.

This notice is posted on the fence at 2 Broadway Close in St Andrew.

“Residents are concerned about this, but this is what we now have before us and we are considering whatever it is that we need to consider,” he said.

Chevannes said the KSAMC received a letter outlining the residents’ objection to the proposed multi-family development on Tuesday, August 11.

“We reached out to the applicant today, the 14th of August, indicating that we are in receipt of an application and we are in the process of setting up an objection meeting. The law requires an intent notice be placed on-site in a conspicuous position and also at the nearest police station or post office, which the applicant did. So we reached out to the applicants and the objectors and we intend to schedule that meeting as soon as possible,” the city engineer said.

“Under the Building Act, the decision that the committee makes in processing the application has to take into consideration the objection. Not to say that an objection automatically means an approval will be denied, but it must take into consideration the implications in accordance with the Building Act. We have to deal with the objections and provide any clarity an objector might require,” he explained.

He added that those objections would be shared with the KSAMC’s attorneys as well as a representative from Jamaicans For Justice — “Someone from an objective perspective, just to weigh in on the discussion with the objectors. Basically, what is obtained in an objection meeting is clarity that the applicant or the developer would have failed to provide to the residents.”
In a letter to residents, Richard Spence, the developer, urged them not to see the project as any inconvenience to the community.

“This is to clarify and hopefully dispense with rumours emanating from a recent article in the Jamaica Observer. Our proposed development is a modest two-storey mix of town houses and apartments with adequate underground parking. This information was shared with Mr Desmond Mair, president of Broadway Mews Association, as I responded to a letter from the association regarding our potential development,” Spence wrote.

He pointed to an extract from his letter to the association, dated February 11, 2026.

Spence also said he could not understand from where the rumour of a five-storey building came.

“Under the law, we may well be allowed a five-storey building, but it is, and was never our intent, and it is not what we submitted to the relevant authorities as our proposed development. Our application and submissions for approval are still in progress, and as we communicated to the president of the association, Mr Mair, on July 8, 2026, we await the response from relevant authorities to share further detail. Please be assured that having lived here for over 50 years, and intending to continue living here, we are very sensitive to our neighbours and surroundings. We hope that this puts an end to the recent misinformation being shared,” Spence wrote.

However, some residents are still sceptical of the planned development.

“To me, they put up a notice; if nobody objects, then fine. If you object, there are no plans for you to see. People feel they can’t object until they see the plan. You hear that it will take 60 days to see the plan and then the time just blows off and you can’t object again. By that time they would have put in anything they want,” one resident argued on Saturday.

“Based on our objection letter, some people in another upscale community got a hold of it and they want to do their own objection because they were in the same position where they think they had to see a plan and couldn’t get no plan either. A whole lot of people want to talk,” the resident said.

Another resident, who said most of the people who live on Broadway Close have been there for 40 years, cited possible health risks to the elderly.

“Don’t forget the construction for two or three years and the traffic. To add 25 units we are talking about 50-plus cars. This little road can’t manage that. We have concerns about even just going outside. These people are old and all that construction dust would kill them. It is not that we don’t want the developer to build, but build a house. Why you have to build town houses and apartments and all that? They are crowding up the place,” the resident argued.