EDITORIAL - More questions about Up Park Camp

The administration's proposal to move the army from its headquarters in Kingston to the plains of St Catherine, supposedly to free lands for the redevelopment of the capital, raises a number of questions that demand serious answers so as to facilitate a frank and transparent debate on the matter.

Among the issues to be addressed is the real cost of building the new Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) camp at Caymanas, which Prime Minister Bruce Golding says the soldiers want. It is important, too, that the administration quickly unveils its detailed renewal plan for Kingston.

We take the second point first. Up Park Camp, which has been the home of the JDF for more than two centuries, currently occupies around 220 acres, down from over 600 acres at its peak. The Government says that that land is now needed, apparently to host new communities, commercial zones and appropriate infrastructure for a city that has been on a sprawl for decades.

Ripe for redevelopment

The argument, on the face of it, makes sense and should, perhaps, be pursued to the end perceived by Mr Golding, his ministers and government technocrats. We, however, would urge caution on greenfield developments, where many areas in the city, and near to Up Park Camp, are ripe for redevelopment. Communities such as Allman Town, Vineyard Town, Franklyn Town and Rollington Town, for instance, already have basic infrastructure and many habitable, if stressed homes. Long neglect, however, has caused physical and social decay.

The effort at renewal in these communities might be more tedious, demanding of hard work, but is likely, in the end, to be more rewarding than if the administration were, say, to do with Up Park Camp what its predecessor did with the Bellevue lands.

Unaffordable

Second, by most estimates, it will cost between $30 billion and $50 billion to build a new, modern headquarters for the JDF on the 400 acres of Caymanas lands that the Government says it has transferred to the army. That, at the top end, is nearly 130 per cent of the Government's initial recurrent budget for national security this fiscal year, or more than 70 per cent of what was allocated for education.

That cost, in the context of the Government's fiscal problems, is unaffordable, notwithstanding the prime minister's declared intention that the bulk of the redevelopment cost should be borne by the private sector. He has not said how, but it seems unlikely that the cost would be much more than $2 billion for the sale of the Up Park Camp lands.

It is not removal of the army from its headquarters that the administration must address. There remains the scheme to relocate the police commissioner's office from the desired Golden Triangle region of the capital to make way for middle and upper-end housing. Similar developments are also planned for Ruthven Road, where the police's VIP security detail has its headquarters.

We are all for urban renewal, but this does not only mean new concrete structures - which is why we want to see the full plan and its price tag.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.