A number of developers behind “large-scale development projects” have contacted the Government to have their plans fast-tracked through the town planning department and the planning unit in the Prime Minister’s Office, a senior civil servant declared today.
Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office Alies Jordan declared in a Government Information Service press release there was “heartening” response to Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s recent call for investors to contact her office to expedite the processing of “major development projects” currently awaiting approval.
The number of developers who had responded to the Prime Minister’s invitation was not disclosed.
The proposals included submissions for hotel and resort developments, including villas, townhouses and apartments, Jordan said. There is also an undisclosed number of renewable energy projects to install solar photovoltaic systems, develop energy biomass and erect wind turbines, she added.
The list also included “the usual complement of householder applications”, she said, referring to home building applications.
Jordan said in the statement: “We have received several calls from persons who are eager to start major investment projects, and the Town and Country Development Planning Office and the Planning Unit in this office are working assiduously to have the matters addressed. I want to thank all the officers working round-the-clock to expedite the processing of these applications.”
In her April 11 address to the nation, Prime Minister Mottley said the push to jumpstart projects was a bid to stimulate the economy after the pandemic forced businesses and economic activity to shut down for the last five weeks.
“The proposed locations are across the island – on the west, south and southeast coastal areas,” Permanent Secretary Jordan said.
She highlighted two hotel developments – the redevelopment of the existing Blue Horizon Hotel property, at Rockley, Christ Church, and Royalton Barbados at the former Discovery Bay hotel in Holetown, St James.
Jordan revealed a first-of-its-kind virtual town hall meeting next Monday on the proposed construction of the Royalton Barbados Resort. Public comment on the development plans by e-mail submissions to the Prime Minister’s Office planning unit in the Old Town Hall Building, Cheapside, is to end on May 27.
