The urban development corporation (UDC) is the government’s leading urban and rural development agency and has primary responsibility for the development of a number of designated areas across the island of Jamaica. One of its designated area, Caymanas, lies close to the Kingston urban centre area. In recent times, this area has taken on greater importance due to the Caymanas economic zone, the buildout of homes by new era homes ltd and its partial use in the planned segment of the north south coast leg of Highway 2000.
SPEAKING NOTES – DESMOND MALCOLM, GENERAL MANAGER OF Urban Development Corporation
Salutations
Senator KD Knight, OJ, UDC Chairman
Members of the UDC board,
Ms Denise Daley, Member of Parliament
Mr Arnoldo Brown, Member of Parliament
Mr Leo Taddeo, Chief Executive Officer, New Era Homes
Mr Desmond Young, Vice President New Era Homes
Executive management team of the UDC and Staff Members
Members of the media
Good afternoon
The urban development corporation (UDC) is the government’s leading urban and rural development agency and has primary responsibility for the development of a number of designated areas across the island of Jamaica. One of its designated area, Caymanas, lies close to the Kingston urban centre area. In recent times, this area has taken on greater importance due to the Caymanas economic zone, the buildout of homes by new era homes ltd and its partial use in the planned segment of the north south coast leg of Highway 2000.
For a number of years, the UDC has been formulating a Caymanas Estate Development Plan (CEDP) which speaks to a broad development concept for lands owned by the urban development corporation (UDC) and Mr. Alex Hamilton.
The CEDP seeks to capitalize on the opportunities that already exist within Caymanas Estate Development Area (CEDA) such as the historical and cultural assets of an authentic sugar plantation, its peaceful rural charm, its pristine environment and sporting and recreational themes, which have been used to develop a unique mixed-use (recreational/residential/commercial) planned unit development in line with the principles of environmental stewardship.
In the process of developing the CEDP, the UDC sought to ensure that the plan adhered to the planning guidelines enunciated in the Portmore to Clarendon park highway 2000
Corridor development plan 2004-2025 volume 13 zoning (GOJ; October 2005).
Specifically, the Caymanas Estate falls within a special purpose district zoned as a recreation open space district. The purpose of this district includes:
- Single family dwellings with the exception being the development of mixed use recreational/residential/commercial planned unit developments permitted on very large lots (Caymanas Estate qualifies in this regard as it is over 10,000 acres);
- Agriculture;
- Forestry
- Among other passive recreational uses
The stated purpose of mixed-use (recreational/residential/commercial) planned unit development district is to permit and encourage the development of areas for which recreation and open space (active and passive) is the principal land use that is creatively combined with a mixture of residential and commercial uses.
As in other planned unit development districts, variety of structure types would be permitted and there would be greater flexibility in the overall design of the site.
No development is possible however without adequate consideration for the implementation of primary infrastructure such as sewerage. Therefore the construction of a sewage conveyance system for the Caymanas Estate development is very critical to facilitate the rapidly developing area with its boundless opportunities.
The laying of the pipelines will involve some 7.4km of force main being installed inclusive of two sewage lift stations conveying sewage with final connection to the soapberry wastewater treatment plant, St. Catherine. This system is designed to accommodate sewage from all developments planned for the area. However, individual development blocks will be responsible for constructing its own sewage conveyance to link into this primary facility.
All engineering and supervision will be provided by the UDC engineering, quantity surveying and project management personnel over the 8 months life of the project.
We expect the works to have minimal impact on the human population and traffic flow in the caymanas area except for when it crosses the Mandela highway. We are already putting measures in place through our collaboration with the national works agency to minimise this impact.
With the value of this contract being j$624 million, this represents one of the largest capital development project spend in recent history by the UDC. We are proud to say the source of funds are not loans but from the UDC’s capital development funds primarily drawn from sale of recent assets such as Oceana Hotel, Forum Hotel, and Jamintel etc)
With all the funds and permits in place, we are expecting early mobilisation by contractor YP Seaton & associates company ltd as we seek to complete this project and make the Caymanas development a jewel in the Caribbean and a iconic symbol of the balance between development and the preservation of the environment
Thank you everyone