The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

SENATOR Keith Bell yesterday said the Planning and Subdivisions Act is a “horrendous” piece of legislation with “adverse consequences” to Bahamians that should have never been passed under the previous FNM government.

Mr Bell said he simply did not understand what the objective was in passing the legislation in 2010 until it was invoked in the case of Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard as a part of an ongoing saga of allegations that he encroached on Crown land without the relevant government approvals at his Lyford Cay estate.

Insisting that he has no interests in this matter, Mr Bell said it was an example that “essentially it is dangerous to buy land in this country”.

“No one could understand why the Free National Movement government was passing such a badly drafted piece of legislation and to make it worse, had no plan or scheme to provide all the resources needed to administer the legislation,” Mr Bell said in the Senate.

“To give an example, under the old law, to build a house on your lot you apply for a building permit. If it met the requirement, it was approved under the new law. The PSA would require site plan approval which is a complex structure whereby the application would have to be published in the newspaper and the community would have the opportunity to object and this was supposed to happen within a government office which was already struggling to have permits issued in a reasonable time frame.

“Needless to say, this would increase the cost of full ownership and land development making it more expensive to purchase homes. The Free National Movement’s response was to drive the legislation through without reference to the consequences then continue to issue permits and approvals without following the process of the act.”

He continued: “In fairness to them nonetheless, necessity dictated that the government functioned even though they passed legislation that created requirements that they could not fulfil.

“I simply could not understand what the object was in passing such a convoluted, complex, ill thought out legislation, with such adverse consequences to Bahamians. That was until it was invoked in the process of Peter Nygard [then] it all then made sense.

“I am no consultant. I have no interest in the Lyford Cay saga. As an attorney at law familiar with the Planning Act, I will say that it is a horrendous piece of legislation that should never have been passed.”

Mr Bell said the PSA sought to take away the rights of landowners to develop their property. He said it also created roadblocks to developing this land that could stall projects.

However, FNM Senator Carl Bethel objected to Mr Bell’s pushback to the PSA saying the rule of relevance should be enforced, as the debate should focus on the mid-year budget.

President of the Senate Sharon Wilson then interjected, ruling that Mr Bell would be allowed to continue as the issue affected the lives of Bahamians.

Mr Bell said: “We have a Constitution which speaks to the right of a person to hold and keep their private property. While it is expected that there should be laws to address development it is simply not acceptable to essentially deprive a person of the use of their property through constant and protracted challenges to their development. The sad reality is even the prime minister issued an injunction.”

“The sad reality is that when persons are advocating for the preservation of the Planning and Subdivisions Act many do not have a full appreciation of the implications of that act. At its core it allows anyone with deep pockets to obstruct development without interest in the land. It is easy to ignore issues when it is not impacting [you].

“But imagine buying a piece of property and the title is clear. There are no restrictions on the use of the land and yet you are unable to develop the land because you are now forced to spend untold funds to fund site plan approval. It could happen to anyone who owns land and it simply cannot stand,” Mr Bell said.