Hanover groups still in the dark about New Negril Plan even as completion date looms

Lucea Mayor Sheridan Samuels says the Hanover Municipality Corporation (HMC) is still seeking a clearer understanding of the objectives and justification for the proposed New Negril development plan.

According to Samuels, who is also councillor of the Cauldwell division, the local authority is hoping for a follow-up meeting with the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), to bring clarity to the plan, which includes the construction of buildings of unlimited heights in the area, similar to Cancun in Mexico and South Beach in Florida.

The NEPA has engaged the corporation in two meetings so far, one which Samuels says was held a few weeks ago, where the organisation had said the boundary would extend to Esher, a dormitory community in Lucea. He said concerns were expressed during the meeting that the New Negril boundary is only extending deeper into Hanover, with no extension in Westmoreland.

“They were outlining the whole thing, but council has concerns re where the extended boundaries that come up to Esher ... and were wondering, because we did not get a definite motive as to why it is extended that far and if it is just for the development of the parish,” Samuels explained.

“When we looked at the extension of the New Negril boundary, up to Esher, we don’t see much land space there where any major development can take place, so we still need to understand. As for the unlimited heights, we can understand that aspect of it. But is the New Negril just being formed for that?” he questioned.

Mayor Samuels said the New Negril proposal would better serve Hanover if its boundaries were extended to Lucea, which has been starved of tourism development despite being regarded as a heritage tourism town with a plethora of ecotourism and historic assets such as Fort Charlotte, the Lucea Town Hall and the centuries-old Hanover Parish Church.

He is of the opinion that if it is extended to Lucea, the benefits would be tremendous, and it would not change the name of the town itself. Ideally, the area will be covered under the New Negril, and this, he said, offers a lot of potential.

The mayor believes the plans have not been finalised, because there remains room for discussions.

Anxious to have a clearer understanding, he said he supposes the planners will return, owing to the concerns that were expressed. “The main point is that we are waiting to have further discussions because we want to understand,” he emphasized.

In November 2018, at the Physical Planning and Environment Committee of the HMC, Senior Physical Planner at the NEPA, Isau Bailey, had introduced the New Negril plan which, he said, was commissioned by the Cabinet, and which would guide future growth and development of the area.

Bailey had also said several government agencies, and community-based organisations would be consulted to give their input in the development of the $50-million plan, which would result in an updated area profile, including physical, social and economic development; as well as financial and infrastructural development in order to come up with a vision of what the New Negril would look like.

He had also told the meeting that by July 2019, NEPA would have some “3D models and by October 2019, the draft master plan document would be fully prepared and ready for the surveying so that the various stakeholders could give their comments and feedback”. Bailey had also made similar statements at a New Negril consultation which took place during a Negril Chamber of Commerce meeting in March.

However, when contacted last Friday, President of the Hanover Parish Development Committee, Dwayne Clayton, said his organisation, which is the main civic body of legal entity in the parish, had not been informed about such meetings, and members of his organisation said attempts to schedule a meeting with NEPA had proven futile.

“The PDC had approached NEPA to have a meeting, but it never happened. I have not heard of any community consultation meetings being held. I personally reached out to them and did not get any answer. I was told that I would have been called, but I never got that call,” Clayton said.

When the NEPA’s Physical Planning Department was contacted on Friday, spokesperson Sharon Heron said the agency had not yet streamlined the dates for its consultation meetings with all the relevant community members and other stakeholders in Hanover, but noted that one meeting was held with a Lucea group from Bulls Bay in Westmoreland.

“We are in contact with the other groups down there and we are trying to get the dates for the meetings; we have not been able to confirm the dates as yet with the CDCs (Community Development Committee), the SDC (Social Development Commission), all the various groups down there; we are trying to get as much as possible. It will be a series of consultations. We are trying to put the dates together,” she said.

“We will be having more and we will be trying as best to contact all the community groups; we are trying to arrange them as we speak,” she added.

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