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New Legislation for more Responsive Physical Planning
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New Legislation for more Responsive Physical Planning
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Contact:
John
Emmanuel
Friday,
October 05, 2001
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A major effort has gotten underway here aimed at consolidating and modernizing
St. Lucia’s laws relating to physical planning. The St. Lucia House of
Assembly on September 25, 2001 passed new legislation that makes provision for
the orderly and progressive development of lands, taking into consideration
environmental factors. In piloting the bill before the House, Minister for Planning, Development, Environment and Housing Honourable Dr. Walter Francois, said the bill makes provision for proper sub-division of land coupled with infrastructure such as roads, water, and electricity. “This
bill in essence seeks to make the physical planning and regulatory processes
more responsive to the policies of the government and to the needs of the
community,” Dr. Francois told Parliament. The
new bill will facilitate radical changes relating to preparation, approval, and
revision of physical plans, detailing how they will guide the developmental
process on the island with regard to both public and private sector
developments. Under the new legislation an eventual phasing out the Development
Control Authority (DCA) will occur. Dr.
Francois noted that key provisions for the realization of these reforms are
functional changes in the institutional arrangements for the administration of
the legislation and in the adoption of various measures to clarify and improve
the law with a view to “striking a balance between the facilitation of
development and the protection of the environment”. Speaking
on the new legislation, Prime Minister Honourable Dr. Kenny Anthony says the
Ministry of Planning will need to put in place various checks and balances in
order to effectively deal with the provisions of the new legislation.
The old system under the Development Control Authority, he notes, had
proven to be obsolete, fostering greater control as opposed to facilitating
developmental enterprises on the island. He suggests that those who will be
charged with implementing this bill would have had a history of applying the old
legislation and may not accept all aspects of this bill. “The
Ministry, therefore, will have to engage in some sensitisation to convince
members of staff of the virtue of this approach and how the various provisions
of this bill ought to be applied. That should not be ignored because if we do
not do that then the possibility exists that these provisions may be
compromised,” the Prime Minister advised. The new measures are also designed to allow greater decentralization of the activities of the physical planning department, thereby facilitating easier access by members of the public. |
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