The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A prominent developer yesterday praised the Government’s move to revise the Bahamas’ key planning and development legislation, describing the current Act as “a disaster from the start”.

Franon Wilson, Arawak Homes president, told Tribune Business that the Planning and Subdivisions Act introduced by the former Ingraham administration “went too far, too fast” and exceeded the capacity of both the private and public sectors to properly implement it.

Mr Wilson suggested that Act was “doomed to fail” because the Bahamas had failed to put in place the necessary supporting infrastructure to both ensure the law was enforced and proper development could be approved efficiently.

In particular, he suggested the 2010 Act effectively required the Ministry of Works to “double, triple, quadruple” its staff, and hire numerous professionals, to fulfill its expanded mandate.

The Arawak Homes president was speaking after the Government quietly posted a draft of its Planning and Subdivisions Bill 2015 on its website, seemingly as a way to obtain feedback from all private sector and public sources that would be affected by implementation of its numerous amendments.

Mr Wilson said Arawak Homes was still reviewing the Bill, and had not been informed of any formal public consultation that was due to take place.

A comparison of the 2010 and 2015 legislation, though, shows that the latter contained 57 separate clauses compared to 77 in the existing Act, with the pagination cut by close to one-third from the former’s 63.

“I think the Government needs to be saluted for recognising that Bill [the 2010 Act] was a disaster from the start, and that it needed to be replaced in large part,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business.

“What it called for was the Ministry of Works would have to double, triple, quadruple its staff capacity to execute that Bill properly. It was not made for the Bahamas. It went too far, too fast.”

The Planning and Subdivisions Act is arguably the most important piece of legislation in the Bahamas when it comes to regulating construction-type development, and ensuring the public’s interest - and that of the environment - is duly protected.

While its 2010 introduction was largely welcomed, especially by environmentalists, bona fide developers and the construction-related professions, for bringing greater regulation to an area that urgently required it, there was also a sense that some of its requirements were too bureaucratic and onerous, and could ultimately stifle development.

“Hopefully. from the consultation and feedback with this [2015] Bill, the country will end up with something that is safe for the environment, and puts developers and attorneys in a position where everyone understands the process,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business.

“And that development can continue in a responsible manner while safeguarding the public. That’s what we all want. The law in effect now went too far, too soon.”

While backing the 2010 legislation’s ultimate goal, Mr Wilson said the Bahamas had been unprepared for the “significant” increase in human resources and technical capacity that the Planning and Subdivisions Act 2010 required for proper enforcement.

“To pass the law without doing that, it was doomed to fail,” he told Tribune Business. “It was a disaster from the beginning. The best thing they could have done was to repeal this, no question about it.

“Hopefully, we’ll end up with something we can all live with.”