Rights To the City Only For Developers

A few years ago, a house around the corner from my home was being renovated. There was constant noise pollution from the building site. Day and night! One morning, at approximately 1:00 a.m. when I just couldn’t take the stress any longer, I got out of bed and went over to the house. I begged the workers for a lickle ease-up so I could get some sleep. One of the men imperiously told me dat im was doing honest work. An if im did come beg mi fi help, mi woulda did run im. So im nah stop do fi im work.

On top of that, the workman unilaterally declared that I couldn’t possibly hear any construction noise from way over deh suh. Even though my house is located on another street, it is actually diagonally across from my neighbour’s. The out of order construction worker didn’t seem to understand the physics of how sound travels. Especially early in the morning when there is little or no traffic! The noise of hammering and drilling is amplified. There are regulations that limit noise levels, and not just from sound systems. But these are routinely ignored.

In total frustration, I retreated to sleeplessness. Later that day, when my tired brain was functioning lickle better, I recognised that I was approaching the problem from the wrong angle. I shouldn’t have had any confrontation with the workmen. It was the owners of the house who should be tackled. Believe it or not, when I got in touch with them, I was told that they had no idea construction work was being done at night. I reluctantly gave them the benefit of the doubt.

‘LIVE WITH IT, SAYS NEPA’

Who is protecting the right of citizens to enjoy peace and quiet at home? Certainly not the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA)! The headline of a Gleaner report by Asha Wilks published on Friday, December 9 makes this quite clear: ‘Explosion of building projects in the city? Live with it, says NEPA’. Or move out, commands the CEO Peter Knight. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘explosion’ as “a violent shattering or blowing apart of something, as is caused by a bomb”.

What is being shattered all over the Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) is the peace of mind that many citizens used to enjoy in neighbourhoods comprising single-family homes. The density of new housing developments is now quite similar to that of tenement yards in crowded inner-city communities. In his 1976 big tune, ‘Tenement Yard’, Jacob Miller lamented the fact that “Dreadlocks can’t live in privacy.” Baldheads are now also suffering: “Dreadlocks can’t live inna tenement yard/Too much su-su su-su su-su, too much watchie watchie.”

Much like NEPA, the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) is another state agency that is consistently failing to protect the rights of citizens. Asha Wilks also reports that, in a November 30 meeting of Parliament’s Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee, “Xavier Chevannes, chief technical officer within the KSMAC, disclosed … that of 183 developments carried out between January and March, over 30 of them were built without the approval of the KSMAC.” How is this possible?

In an open letter to the prime minister, published in The Gleaner on December 7, Citizens Rights to the City (CRC), a formidable coalition of citizens’ associations, identified the failings of the KSAMC as a major issue: “As you are aware, the 2017 Provisional Development Order (PDO) for Kingston & St Andrew increased heights and the allowable number of habitable rooms (i.e. more people that can be accommodated) in a given space for new housing developments. It also allows more mixed use – residential and commercial, in areas that were formerly mostly residential.

“As a result several communities have had an explosion in multistorey, residential development and commercial activity. The volume and pace are far ahead of the capacity of the KSAMC and other agencies to ensure compliance with Building and Planning Laws. This is resulting in widespread breaches.” Proverbial wisdom reassures us that where there’s a will, there’s a way. The KSAMC does not appear to have either the will or the way to do its job efficiently.

PRIMARY BENEFICIARIES

The primary beneficiaries of the incompetence of NEPA and the KSAMC are opportunistic developers. It seems as if only they have rights. They do as they please. The CRC reminds the prime minister that, as a result of reckless development, “Many negative impacts are being experienced. These include increased traffic and noise levels, less green space; loss of privacy, blocked natural air flow and light for neighbouring single family dwellings; increased run-off from paved surfaces adding to more flooding, more garbage but limited collection, more pressure on inadequate water supplies, more sewage and water costs for older residents and others on limited fixed incomes, and high, speculative demand that is driving property costs out of the reach of most city dwellers.”

Citizens Rights to the City forcefully argued in their open letter to the prime minister that there should be “No Confirmation Without Consultation on the Impact and lessons of the 2017 Provisional Development Order (PDO) for Kingston and St Andrew (KSA).” There has been hardly any consultation with citizens on the PDO. Representatives of the CRC were not even permitted to air their views at the meeting last month of Parliament’s Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee, despite having made two submissions to the committee in 2021 and 2022. They were forced to sit in the gallery as mere observers.

As individual citizens, we cannot solve the problem of runaway construction across Jamaica. We must join forces to protect the quality of our life. Naive as it may seem, I’m proposing that developers should be required by law to supply high-quality noise cancelling headphones to all householders within earshot of noise pollution coming from construction sites in residential communities. And they must comply.  Given the huge profits that are being made in the construction industry, it’s a small price for developers to pay to preserve the peace and quiet of communities under attack. And all of us must collectively insist that developers are held accountable by state agencies. Neither NEPA nor KSAMC should be allowed to get away with slackness.