NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Senator Viana Gardiner yesterday fired back against claims by Housing Minister JoBeth Coleby-Davis that nothing has been done to create a master plan for the Prospect Ridge Community for Young Professionals, noting that the development had advanced further and faster than any similar subdivision.
Senator Gardiner, former chief operations officer in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, said in a statement yesterday that the 1,500 young professionals who applied for housing-land in the Prospect Ridge Community should not be misled by comments made by Minister Coleby-Davis.
Gardiner chaired the Committee for the Development of Communities for Young Professionals.
Minister Coleby-Davis said during the first Office of the Prime Minister press briefing yesterday that there is “a lot of groundwork to be done” on the development “ noting that no feasibility study nor topography study has been done.
Gardiner, Shadow Minister of Housing and Transport said yesterday that the former government took the legal steps to secure the land for the development and completed the conceptual sketch of the development, the detailed Environmental Impact Assessment of the land, the procurement process for infrastructural and architectural drawings, and the application process, including a review of 1,500 applications by independent accounting firms.
“Following a bidding procurement process, Islands by Design completed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the land within the allotted timeframe and submitted it to the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) for its review. The DEPP completed its review and advised the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) on the eve of the General Election that the environmentalists needed to augment the EIA with topography studies. The Housing Minister could only have made some of her comments because of the findings from the work already done. The comments also suggest no action was taken by the Davis Administration on the DEPP’s advice.,” said Gardiner.
She said: “The full and transparent procurement for service providers to carry out the infrastructural and architectural drawings was also completed. OPM was to conclude a contract for this work with the service provider. The Prospect Ridge Community for Young Professionals was commenced for the public good of empowering young persons and rebuilding our middle classes.
“It was designed to include persons over-qualified for other Government housing initiatives, such as Carmichael Village Subdivision. Something that has started but not yet completed, does not mean “nothing was done”. We have left a strong foundation for the Davis Administration to build on and the remainder of the project can still be completed in a timely manner. We structured the project in a unique way which makes homeownership affordable and accessible to a group previously sidelined. If the Government does not complete the Prospect Ridge Community or delays it considerably, that is entire because they choose not to make housing-land ownership a reality for young professional Bahamians.”
Gardiner noted that developments such as the Prospect Ridge Community can serve as a solution to empower our young people, with the Free National Movement remaining committed to working together to bring it to fruition.
