The Kingston
and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC) Tuesday joined the St. Mary Parish Council in
passing a resolution to have Local Authorities designated as the One Stop Shop
for development applications.
The local Authorities include the Parish Councils, the KSAC and the Portmore Municipal Council.
They believe the 'One Stop Shop' approach will significantly reduce the work load of the responsible agency, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).
NEPA has been burdened by major backlogs due to the lengthy application process which has reportedly hindered many developments.
Shortly after he assumed office last year Prime Minister Bruce Golding promised that systems would have been put in place for development applications to be approved within 90 days.
However, according the Local Authorities the bottlenecks still exist.
They are calling for the legal mandate to review and approve development applications on a shorter time basis.
The Authorities are also suggesting one entity be located in the Corporate Area which would be responsible for receiving and viewing development applications.
Chairman of the KSAC, Mayor Desmond McKenzie says the move is a positive one.
"Some of the suggestions in this resolution has been put in place already so it is still a timely resolution,"
"There have been some meetings between the Council and NEPA over the last couple of weeks looking at areas of how to improve efficiency in terms of getting applications out of NEPA and other such agencies," said Mayor McKenzie.
The resolution will be circulated to the other parish councils, the Portmore Municipal Council and the Association of Local Government Officers of Jamaica.
The local Authorities include the Parish Councils, the KSAC and the Portmore Municipal Council.
They believe the 'One Stop Shop' approach will significantly reduce the work load of the responsible agency, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).
NEPA has been burdened by major backlogs due to the lengthy application process which has reportedly hindered many developments.
Shortly after he assumed office last year Prime Minister Bruce Golding promised that systems would have been put in place for development applications to be approved within 90 days.
However, according the Local Authorities the bottlenecks still exist.
They are calling for the legal mandate to review and approve development applications on a shorter time basis.
The Authorities are also suggesting one entity be located in the Corporate Area which would be responsible for receiving and viewing development applications.
Chairman of the KSAC, Mayor Desmond McKenzie says the move is a positive one.
"Some of the suggestions in this resolution has been put in place already so it is still a timely resolution,"
"There have been some meetings between the Council and NEPA over the last couple of weeks looking at areas of how to improve efficiency in terms of getting applications out of NEPA and other such agencies," said Mayor McKenzie.
The resolution will be circulated to the other parish councils, the Portmore Municipal Council and the Association of Local Government Officers of Jamaica.
comments powered by Disqus
All feeds
