Bernard Lodge pitched as green, tech-savvy town of the future
Published:Wednesday | February 16, 2022 | 12:10 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
The township being developed in the Bernard Lodge greenfield of St Catherine will be modelled as an eco-friendly hub but will see multimillion-dollar infrastructural investments in smart technology to boost public safety.
That disclosure has come from Joseph Shoucair, managing director of SCJ Holdings, who is spearheading the Greater Bernard Lodge Master Development Plan to carve out a hybrid of residential and commercial infrastructure from swathes of arable land spanning 2,400 acres.
Approximately 3,000 acres will be designated for agriculture.
The focus on high-tech security features is expected to be a drawing card for families in an island that records among the highest global murder rates in the world.
A section of the township will be allotted for a high-tech monitoring facility equipped with display screens showing images of surrounding lands. Electronic surveillance and quick-response deployment will be key features of that investment.
The security suite will include drones, satellite imagery, surveillance camera feeds, and other technologies. Shoucair was unable to provide the projected cost of that spend.
“We expect the investors to build smart, liveable communities,” Shoucair said in a Gleaner interview.
“All developers are required to bear in mind smart technology, smart development guidelines,” he said.
The master development plan, said Shoucair, will also incorporate bike lanes and pedestrian pathways as part of a progressive plan to diversify modes of mobility.
The SCJ Holdings managing director is advocating that residents and business interests in the emerging township abandon automobiles in favour of biking or walking to their destinations.
“If people can use bikes to move around the town, you don’t get that congestion in the urban centre as you would normally get with buses and taxis,” he said, hinting at manageable levels of traffic and higher productivity.
More green spaces have also been promised as a buffer between commercial and residential blocks.
“We want to make a modern, green town, green commercial community so all developments have to be consistent with that overarching goal to provide a green community as much as possible,” Shoucair said.
He emphasised that the current scope of work – including installation of pipelines leading to a closed sewerage system that would prevent potential contamination of the aquifer – is part of the green objective.
Engineers also have on the cards installation of pipelines to support a 10 million-gallon water-retention pond, which will help to alleviate flood risks.
Shoucair argues that the Bernard Lodge township will offer a modern template for urban planning, bereft of the haphazard workarounds that typify some developments.
“Apart from downtown Kingston, which was planned when the British were here, you can see how it’s made up. We have expanded our urban centres without planning. So, you see how Portmore has developed, a large sprawling town but no facilities. What we are trying to do here is to create an integrated community,” he said.