KSAC monitoring Corporate Area developers
ENCOURAGED by its recent successes in having building breaches rectified, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) is to zone the Corporate Area.
According to Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie, such a move will allow the KSAC to better monitor developers and ensure that they comply with the approved building plans in their constructions.
And starting today, the staff of KSAC’s Building and Town Planning department will begin visiting developments in the Manor Park, Norbrook, Waterworks, Barbican and Stony Hill areas to ensure that constructions are done in accordance with what the KSAC has approved, McKenzie told the council.
He said that the KSAC would publish in the newspapers, a weekly list of developments and whether or not they were in compliance.
“We are warning the developers that we will be taking strong and effective action against those who fail to comply with the approved stipulations,” McKenzie said.
A number of developers have been deviating from approved building plans. Last month, for example, the KSAC stopped construction at the Monte Carlo Isle Developers, North American Holdings Limited site in Seymour Lands, St Andrew, after inspections showed that the apartments being built were different from what was approved.
The original plan approved by the KSAC was for one-bedroom apartments, but when inspectors visited the site they said that two-bedroom apartments were being constructed.
“They had changed the orientation. They were putting walls in a different place than in the original plan, and had also put in additional walls,” Norman Shand, city engineer told the Observer.
Shand said that the KSAC asked the developer to resubmit the one-bedroom plans, which were again approved last month.
McKenzie said that Monte Carlo had now complied with KSAC requirements and had been allowed to resume construction.
“Following intense discussions with the Monte Carlo Isle Developers, North American Holdings Limited, we are happy that they have now satisfied all the requirements we have stipulated and, following this compliance, we have granted approval for construction to resume.
“But I assure you that we will be monitoring the project to ensure that there is no repeat of the breaches we detected in September,” McKenzie added.
Meanwhile, the KSAC has also been successful in a case in court to have a two-storey multi-family dwelling at 20 Grosvenor Terrace demolished, Shand said.
He said that the house was demolished last month.
Shand said that the court had ordered the demolition of the two-storey house, which was constructed – without building approval – in an area zoned for single-family dwellings. It was also in breach of the Building and Town Planning Act, he said.
The KSAC has in court an estimated 14 cases of building breaches, he said.