PLANNERS IN Jamaica were highly critical this week of the absence of planning legislation to guide the development process, despite a 10-year-old attempt at crafting a bill.
But new chief executive for the Ministry of Land and Environment (MLE) said Wednesday the issue is being addressed.
Jacqueline daCosta, who directed land policy from the Office of the Prime Minister before her appointment as Permanent Secretary at MLE, says the planning bill will pull together the disparate but related policies on land, shelter management, and other development related documentation and legislation.
DaCosta advised a planning seminar at the PCJ Auditorium in Kingston that while progress had been made on a previous bill, she intervened in that process because, as crafted, the legislation would have given too much power to the politicians.
The new legislation, she said, will have as a primary feature a framework for consultation and enhanced participation of the stakeholders whom the development will affect.
Keith Miller, architect of local government reform, who also argued that development must be people-led, suggested that it was up to the Jamaicans to lobby their cause by exercising their will over the politicians.
"Political will is a function of popular will. If the population says we want it, the politicians will have to find the will to get it done," said Miller, who along with daCosta and university lecturer Dr. Carol Archer who spoke to the issue of planners as advocates, were panellists at the seminar.
There was criticism from the planners that they were not central to the consultations on the new bill, but the permanent secretary said the Jamaica Institute of Planners has been in on the talks, and it was up to the institute to represent the views of its members.
According to daCosta, there are over 100 laws currently on the books dealing with land, and over 60 agencies that have some responsibility for land. Additionally, other development related legislation is under consideration, including a new Building Act and a National Building Code being developed by the Jamaica Bureau of Standards.
The issue of the Housing Act was also raised. The Act allows Government to circumvent the planning authorities and declare land for housing development. Keith Miller, architect of local government reform, said Government had a propensity to make laws to which it does not conform.
Miller suggested that the new planning law carry a rider giving it precedence over all other legislation, in order to enforce across-the-board compliance.
Additionally: "The new law is to do away with development orders in their present form."
Development Orders are specific to certain areas, and many are considered outdated and irrelevant, including the one for Kingston which was done in 1966.
Jamaica is the only country in the world found to use them, daCosta said her own research to date has shown, and the Ministry will be promoting the creation and implementation of 'development plans' in the push for a more integrative approach to development.
As a further initiative to deal with compliance and enforcement, the daCosta's office is reworking a 'development manual' that was crafted but never published. The document is being revised and will be circulated for comments, ahead of its publication intended within "a couple of months", the permanent secretary said.
