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+--- Thread: ? allow for establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights" ?? "NEW Negril" (/showthread.php?tid=102421)
? allow for establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights" ?? "NEW Negril" - Sharleen - 03-21-2019
[attachment=2874]Negrilliers view ‘New Negril’ master plan with high suspicion
Janet Silvera, Hospitality Jamaica Coordinator
SOME STAKEHOLDERS in Negril are viewing the New Negril Master Plan, the preparation of which is being undertaken by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), with high suspicion.
The stakeholders were vociferous in voicing their concerns during a presentation by senior physical planner at NEPA, Isau Bailey, at a meeting of the Negril Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday in that resort town.
According to Bailey, the New Negril boundary will begin at the Hanover/Westmoreland border and extend more than 30 kilometres along the entire coastline, to the community of Esher in Hanover, and will allow for the establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights within that space.
But one returning resident who was present at the meeting, expressed concern that the development plan emerged virtually ‘out of the blue’. He said there appears to be undue haste in getting the ‘master plan’ completed. He also took issue with the continued use of the name ‘New Negril’ in reference to the proposed plan.
He sees this as a plo,y by what he described as ‘forces’, to circumvent the long-overdue restoration of the resort town by ‘writing off the original Negril’ because the State is not committed to making the necessary expenditure and have resorted to exploiting Hanover’s largely pristine, virgin coastline, which will allow the original town to “die a slow death”.
“What is driving the ministry and the Cabinet to do this now? Who are the interests behind this new plan?’ he questioned. “My perception of all this is that there is a body of people trying to not repair the Seven Mile Beach, but want to exploit another section and piggyback off the name Negril.
“And when the town (centre) of Negril is not totally considered as a core part of the discussion, it sends a very strong message. I am not saying you are intellectually dishonest, but the thinking is intellectually dishonest and if we are going to level on the table, there are more forces driving these things than we as locals are being exposed to ... . It is not a matter we should take lightly,” the returning resident told the NEPA representatives.
He said that with all the resources being poured into the New Negril plans, it “could run old Negril to the ground through top-end marketing.
“I invested in Little Bay Country Club and would not want to see the investment run down and they buy us out for little and nothing. These people want to come and put high-density resorts and it’s all about revenue generation. And unlike we who see Negril intimately as a place our foreparents preserved [to allow for] four storeys, people will come and abuse our environment for the sake of the capital,” he contended.
“They have no nexus; they have no relationship; they have no attachment. They just see us as a country that they can come exploit. We have white beach, so they see us as money machine,” he argued.
Hotelier and immediate past president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, Daniel Grizzle, again bemoaned the present and previous political administration’s reticence in overhauling the Negril town centre. He said that NEPA and the prime minister will be written to express the organisation’s concerns regarding the use of the name Negril and recommendations for physical and intelligent development of the area.
“I think, which I have been saying all the while, they don’t mind we fall into slum, disrepair, so some big company can come in and say: ‘Oh, they are all struggling. I will buy all of you out for little or nothing.’ It is something they have done in other developed countries; they ‘slummify’ an area and then the developers pick it up cheaply,” he said.
“And, I think it’s not an accident, I think it is a planned thing to let the town centre be a slum. We lack water; we lack proper policing; we lack everything. So to devalue our property so they can buy it cheaply. You have got to have the feeling that our Government is part of the plan. And this has nothing to do with this Government or the other. Both governments have treated us with the same disregard and don’t think of us as a potential big money earner or an area where we are going to be prosperous,” he said.
Also voicing his objection to the New Negril agenda was hotelier Dalton Hill, who called for a letter of objection to be sent to the relevant government ministers behind the New Negril concept, demanding the rehabilitation and establishment of a proper town centre as well as aborting the use of the name ‘New Negril”.
“I am a born and grow Negril person. A no now we deh hold on pon dis name; and now they want to take it away from us. We have no post office; we have no school. We have nothing. Of the millions that are coming out of this town; nothing we no have. With all of what’s happening here, the people of Negril have been left out totally,” he said.
janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
RE: ? allow for establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights" ?? "... - Westenders - 03-21-2019
Not surprised at all I’ve said for years the parish council are letting Negril become run down and focusing on the AI developments in bloody bay
Those hotels are packed
The way they are running down the events and night scene has also impacted the ghost town growth
RE: ? allow for establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights" ?? "... - West end lover - 03-21-2019
Yep, 25 years from now Negril will look like Cancun. Oh well, I’ll be dead.
RE: ? allow for establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights" ?? "... - Aquavit - 03-22-2019
The AIs in the "old Negril" will suffer as well as all the small business there.
As someone who has suffered at the hands of the incompetent NWC, I'm curious to know how they plan to water that shit.
RE: ? allow for establishment of high-rise hotels of unlimited heights" ?? "... - oldtimer - 03-22-2019
As I always say " where does all the poop go "