By Dennie Quill, ContributorDECIDED that the Beverly Hills community badly needed upgrading. But the path to improvement took an unusual route. It began with the construction of 460-plus townhouses on Long Mountain, perilously close to the Mona Dam and above Beverly Hills. Known as the Long Mountain Country Club, the development boasts a clubhouse, health-care facility and day-care centre and has attracted scores of middle-class clientele.
To hear Franklyn McDonald, head of the National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA) tell the story, Beverly Hills will reap rich dividends as the once narrow, winding roads will be widened and the already overburdened water system will be expanded. Already the Beverly Hills citizens are benefiting, he said. The NEPA executive told this column that recent studies of motoring patterns have determined that 20% of Beverly Hills residents use the development road via Karachi Avenue to get to the Mona campus. And a proper road has not been built!
A special condition of the permit for the sewage treatment facility approved by NEPA allowed for the building of a lift station on an empty lot between Beverly Hills and the Long Mountain development. This has drawn the ire of citizens who live close to the huge tank who complain that the odour is unbearable. But Mr. McDonald said the problem has been fixed.
Buoyed by various studies done on the development, Mr. McDonald is confident that the residents need not fear contamination of the groundwater. "All the requisite approvals were given," said the NEPA executive who added that the developers have stuck to the plan with only minor departures.
One of the minor departures is the failure to establish the necessary landscaping treatment that would begin to heal the urban scar created by hundreds of boxy, pink buildings that have chewed up the green space on the mountains.
A letter dated April 24, 2003 obtained from NEPA's lawyer confirms that planning approval for the development stated that access should be via Karachi and or Wellington Heights. The letter added: "However, it was subsequently decided that additional/alternative access routes would be identified in order to effectively deal with the projected increase in the volume of traffic. The Minister of Housing and Water will shortly address this matter."
How can the solution to projected increase in traffic be to abandon one of two new roads and use an already congested road I wonder? But this is planning Jamaican style.
The additional route is apparently via Montclair Drive in Beverly Hills. This is a narrow snake of a road that empties into a congested Beverly Drive as peak-hour traffic tries to escape the torture of Munroe Road. I know this road. It cannot be widened. "They would have to build the road in people's yard," mused one resident. The noise and air pollution from additional traffic would certainly shatter their nerves, argued others. People tend to get nervous when their way of life is threatened. I am reminded of a certain gentleman whose peaceful existence was threatened when a Christian organization erected a tent on a lot across the street from his palatial home. He obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court and ran them out of town because he could not stand to have his peace shattered by their activities. If one were to consider the whole question of what are the options, one would also need to take into account the theory posited by planners who say wider roads do not ease congestion. This is due to what is called "induced travel". An expanded road is like a magnate pulling drivers from all other roads. Drivers will switch to a nice, wide road like we have seen them do on Trafalgar Road or Hope Road or Tom Redcam Avenue. After speaking to Mr. McDonald one felt that the development was well thought out and that maybe Beverly Hills citizens, long accustomed to their cozy suburban lifestyle, were overreacting.
However, Miss Joy Alexander, NEPA's director of Planning and Development, sought more than a little wiggle room when she was asked about the specifics of the road and water expansions. No approvals have been given and she could only say the relevant ministries were doing studies.
In the absence of this approval for critical infrastructure works, why is the development moving full speed ahead? And with new residents moving in daily will the developer pocket his money and walk away leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for the road and improved water scheme?
No one should have a problem with the Long Mountain Country Club development. However, it should be of concern to the hundreds of new homeowners that critical infrastructure work has not yet been done.
NEPA, the government and or the developer need to say how soon the work will be done and who is responsible for doing it. The investors in Beverly Hills and Long Mountain Country Club need this commitment.
Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist.
