Mayor of Portmore Keith Hinds.

Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor

THE MUNICIPALITY of Portmore, St Catherine, is on the brink of massive major developments, Mayor Keith Hinds has disclosed.

Chief among the planned developments is the construction of a US$150 million (J$10.8 billion) 300,000 square-foot building to house the municipal council's office, an office of the Registrar General's Department, a local tax collectorate, a pre-university campus, and other major offices. Centrally located on a 26-acre property close to the Portmore Mall, the multifacility building is expected to be completed in 24 months.

Speaking to The Sunday Gleaner following a retreat with 18 members of his administrative team at the Gran Bahía Príncipe Hotel in St Ann recently, Hinds disclosed that in another week, a management consultancy contract would be signed to oversee the project. The contract was signed last Thursday with Global Business Support Services Limited.

Positive financing prospects

Explaining the purpose of the retreat, the Portmore mayor said his team looked at some positive financing prospects, details of which cannot be divulged yet, but said procurement officers were already doing their work. "We are looking at some pre-leasing arrangements among other financing plans," Hinds said.

He asserted that Portmore was ready to explode in business and other areas of development and the municipality wanted to be the driving force. This comes against the background of the Government's move to make parish councils autonomous.

Collection of property taxes

One way to achieve that independence, Hinds said, was through the collection of property taxes. There will be a public-relations campaign for the proposed collection and by August, there will be a fully functional tax office in the community, according to Hinds.

He said in order to ensure everyone paid their property taxes, the Portmore municipality would carry out its own census to accurately ascertain how many persons actually resided there.

"There are now 66 communities in Portmore, and we will go to the finance committee of the council to get a budget and move on it," Hinds said.

One of the main reasons for trying to get everyone in the tax net is to cut down on and eventually eliminate the number of persons who conduct businesses illegally in their homes. This, the mayor said, was in breach of zoning laws. He said that while the council was not against persons trying to make a living, these persons should not do so from their homes.

He cited the cases of houses with the sewerage system built to handle waste from four persons, but which handles a much higher burden when the house is turned into a hairdressing parlour or barber shop. He added that many persons also operated shops, bars, garages, woodwork shops and clothing stores from their homes.

Obtaining lands

To enable persons to operate within the ambit of the law and continue to earn a living, the council is now in the process of trying to get Government to acquire many parcels of Urban Development Corporation-owned lands, scattered across the community, to be sold or leased to entrepreneurs who want to do business. "We want Government to make these idle lands available to those who mean to do business. We do not want a world-class ghetto in Portmore; we want a First-World city," the mayor stated.

Other topics discussed included: