Managing director of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Jearlean John was escorted in and out of a public consultation meeting in D’Abadie on Thursday night by six police officers. The meeting, which took place at the Divine Encounter Ministries International church, featured some heated exchanges but nothing indicating the need for a police escort.
Hundreds of local residents attended the meeting after the sudden announcement by the HDC of its intention to build 1,204 new homes in Trestrail Lands, the 128-acre former horse farm estate belonging to the Trestrail family which was sold to the HDC in September 2011 for a reported sum of $200 million.
Despite acquiring the land three years ago, the HDC has not held any public consultation about the intended land use until now and this has incensed many residents, most of whom heard of the government housing agency’s proposals for the first time last Saturday at the first of two consultations.
The first meeting descended into chaos after heated exchanges between John and the residents ended in a mass walkout, while Lincoln Douglas, the Lopinot/Bon Air West MP and Minister of Arts and Multiculturalism was attempting to address the crowd. At the follow-up meeting, police were deployed around the church hall.
The lush landscape is cherished locally and a residents’ group has quickly formed in D’Abadie, led by activist and financial consultant Peter Permell, with the intent of scrutinising how the HDC proceeds and challenging the need for residential development on land previously used for agriculture. The group is calling itself Residents in Support of Environmentally-friendly development (RISE) and its biggest concern is the HDC’s failure, to date, to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
The HDC is required to submit a preliminary report to the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), which will decide whether an EIA is required. John has agreed to meet with a small group of residents in the coming days. She brought her corporate communications manager, Maurisa Findlay, to manage the meeting as well as a panel of technocrats including a representative from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
Findlay asked media photographers not to take pictures, but later acquiesced after Permell intervened. Permell asked why the development’s design plans had not been put online, as promised in the previous meeting. John replied that she had only just received the revised designs. Large colour pictures of the proposed housing units served as a backdrop to the panel as the HDC opened the meeting with a slick presentation about the community benefits of the development.
Concerns about green space
After half an hour the floor was opened up for questions and comments. Environmental concerns were raised by Alicia Hospedales MP for Arouca/Maloney; Sohal Laltoo, a senior lecturer in environmental management; Nalini Dial, a former Congress of the People member who formed the National Coalition for Transformation (NCT); and writer Alake Pilgrim.
The concerns include the destruction of flora, fauna and a natural aquifer, increased traffic congestion, residential densification, flooding, sewage treatment capacity and air pollution caused by dust during the three-year construction. Permell told the T&T Guardian yesterday there were real concerns about the social impact on the community, quite apart from the environmental impact.
“We cannot discount the fact that there is a demand for housing in T&T,” Permell said, “but every community needs to breathe. A number of private housing developments have mushroomed in the surrounding area on what was previously virgin territory. “This estate should remain in a natural state, maybe as a nature park acting as the ‘lungs’ of the area.”
Permell recognises the appeal of the area in the undulating foothills of D’Abadie and said the elderly Trestrail family was motivated to sell the land, but there had been no prior consultation with the public before purchasing the land. The hastily called meetings, Permell said, were “a formality at which the HDC can give its mitigating strategies and then just go ahead.”
Has contract been awarded
Permell said politics might have played a role in the timing of the announcement. The proposed development is in a marginal constituency, a PNM stronghold until 2010, when it was won by the People’s Partnership. With a general election in 2015, Permell asked why the HDC had come “at the 99th hour to announce their plans, talking about a three-year building period, when they are coming to the end of their term in office and have no guarantee of being returned to office.”
Nalini Dial said she had been told by an unnamed source that the HDC had already awarded a contract worth $1.9 billion for the project. John neither confirmed or denied this. Permell said he had not heard this but if it were true it was a “very serious allegation, and premature. If they don’t get the EIA or the land-usage change, or the government changes and decides not to proceed, and the HDC has already awarded a contract, what would they do?”
After the meeting, Findlay told the T&T Guardian, “We can’t say whether the EIA will be done. Only the EMA can determine if it is required. The document says (an EIA is required) based on additional information. The HDC has to develop a report for the EMA on all of the initial project steps.” It was put to her that an EIA was recommended for the Solomon Hochoy highway extension to Point Fortin, between Debe and Mon Desir, but work proceeded without it.
“I can’t comment on that,” she said, “but the HDC is a very orderly organisation and if requested it will conduct an EIA as required.” Findlay said she believed the proposed development was sustainable and abided by the Town and Country Planning’s guidelines on how many housing units could be put on the available acreage. Asked who would be allocated the houses ,she said the HDC “would pull from our national database accordingly so everyone has a fair chance.”
Findlay added, “As many people here who appear opposed to this project, the majority of them have already indicated they’d like a house in this same development. A lot of them are disposed to selling their own properties for acquisition. Many have said their children will need live in a development like that. They just want to make sure it’s good enough.”