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The Good news is that they are taking down the extra floor
The bad news is that they are building two extra basement floor. Basement floors do not count as 'storeys' but they must be approve by the town planning.
The ugly is that the new plans needs the approval of the prime minister. To quote Vaz....."But the junior minister also noted that the hotel would be seeking to put forward an amendment to its building approval, which would be discussed on the return of the prime minister." I commend the PM for insisting that the laws be enforced. However, he should not be the one to the decision on the amended plans.
Fourth floors come down as hotel's image takes battering
Thursday, May 22, 2008
An Observer file photo of the RIU Hotel in Mahoe Bay near Montego Bay, St James showing four floors.
MONTEGO BAY, St James - With its image taking a battering after weeks of defiance, RIU Hotel and Resorts yesterday bowed to demands that it removes illegally constructed fourth floors on its hotel buildings at Mahoe Bay near the resort city of Montego Bay, St James.
Demolition equipment fired up to take down 24 rooms in the presence of Daryl Vaz, the minister of state in the office of the prime minister, who was accompanied to the site by teams from the St James Parish Council, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
RIU representatives who met Vaz at the construction site which had gone mostly quiet in the past fortnight, watched stone-faced as the demolition began, ending a period which has represented a public relations nightmare for one of Spain's largest hotel chains.
"As it stands now, RIU is complying with the stop and enforcement order by demolishing what needs to be demolished in order to meet the height restrictions," Vaz told the Observer at the end of his visit. "That is the first step they are dealing with."
VAZ. RIU is complying with the stop and enforcement order by demolishing what needs to be demolished in order to meet the height restrictions
The Civil Aviation Authority had found on a check of the planned 701-room hotel that nine out of the 10 buildings had breached building or environmental permits, a dangerous prospect because the hotel is in the direct flight path of the Sangster International Airport, three kilometres to the east.
The only approved building permit, dated June 29, 2007, allowed three-storeys but no four-storey buildings, although the Spanish investor insisted they were using a "revised building plan" that the St James Parish Council said it had not seen or approved.
The plan bore the signature of the council's superintendent of roads and works, Tubal Brown, as well as the official stamp, and led to the interdiction of Brown, who is under investigation.
Vaz said the hotel could be forced to demolish entire floors at its Mahoe Bay property if further investigations reveal a zoning restriction on the number of floors under construction.
"That is the crux of the matter," Vaz said following his four-hour tour of the construction site. He said this question would be one of the foremost to be answered in a full report to be handed over to the prime minister next Monday.
"The question that is to be answered in the report is whether or not there is a restriction on height alone or there is a restriction by the zoning of the area in terms of the amount of floors," Vaz said.
But the junior minister also noted that the hotel would be seeking to put forward an amendment to its building approval, which would be discussed on the return of the prime minister.
"That is what RIU is putting forward that they have submitted a revised plan in order to regularise their existing plan," he said.
The Police Fraud Squad has been asked to investigate who benefited from Brown's actions in stamping the "revised plan" and why no payment was received by the local government body.
Vaz added yesterday that his tour of the property had laid to rest all the contention as to what was approved for the hotel and what was actually there.
The breaches, he said, included height restrictions on at least six of the hotel's buildings as well as the existence of fourth floors when the hotel was only allowed to build three.
He said they also discovered two unapproved basement floors yesterday on two of its buildings, which RIU officials said were for engineering purposes.
Vaz pointed out, however, that the hotel was in compliance of its 701-room density and that RIU had also made an application to replace four of the rooms being demolished on another floor. This, he said, would see them losing in total 20 rooms and bringing the room count down from 701 to 681.
Efforts to reach the parish council's deputy superintendent of roads and works, who was reported to be a part of yesterday's meeting,
proved futile.
For his part, RIU's lawyer, Christopher Bovell, who attended the site meeting, declined to comment, saying that he would not give comments to this particular newspaper, which was practising 'disgraceful journalism' against the RIU Group.
Furthermore, he said, the group had agreed not to comment on the meeting, leaving it instead to Vaz.
The widespread breaches came to light after neighbouring properties complained bitterly that RIU was continuing noisy building activities beyond the hour specified in the building permit, forcing some vacationers to shorten their stay.
The complaints fell on deaf ears, until Prime Minister Golding instructed that an enforcement order be placed on the hotel, to ensure its compliance with the laws of Jamaica.
Last weekend, the Observer also ran a two-part exposé on the travails of Mammee Bay residents battling with RIU Ocho Rios over near similar breaches.
The bad news is that they are building two extra basement floor. Basement floors do not count as 'storeys' but they must be approve by the town planning.
The ugly is that the new plans needs the approval of the prime minister. To quote Vaz....."But the junior minister also noted that the hotel would be seeking to put forward an amendment to its building approval, which would be discussed on the return of the prime minister." I commend the PM for insisting that the laws be enforced. However, he should not be the one to the decision on the amended plans.
Fourth floors come down as hotel's image takes battering
Thursday, May 22, 2008
An Observer file photo of the RIU Hotel in Mahoe Bay near Montego Bay, St James showing four floors.MONTEGO BAY, St James - With its image taking a battering after weeks of defiance, RIU Hotel and Resorts yesterday bowed to demands that it removes illegally constructed fourth floors on its hotel buildings at Mahoe Bay near the resort city of Montego Bay, St James.
Demolition equipment fired up to take down 24 rooms in the presence of Daryl Vaz, the minister of state in the office of the prime minister, who was accompanied to the site by teams from the St James Parish Council, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
RIU representatives who met Vaz at the construction site which had gone mostly quiet in the past fortnight, watched stone-faced as the demolition began, ending a period which has represented a public relations nightmare for one of Spain's largest hotel chains.
"As it stands now, RIU is complying with the stop and enforcement order by demolishing what needs to be demolished in order to meet the height restrictions," Vaz told the Observer at the end of his visit. "That is the first step they are dealing with."
VAZ. RIU is complying with the stop and enforcement order by demolishing what needs to be demolished in order to meet the height restrictionsThe Civil Aviation Authority had found on a check of the planned 701-room hotel that nine out of the 10 buildings had breached building or environmental permits, a dangerous prospect because the hotel is in the direct flight path of the Sangster International Airport, three kilometres to the east.
The only approved building permit, dated June 29, 2007, allowed three-storeys but no four-storey buildings, although the Spanish investor insisted they were using a "revised building plan" that the St James Parish Council said it had not seen or approved.
The plan bore the signature of the council's superintendent of roads and works, Tubal Brown, as well as the official stamp, and led to the interdiction of Brown, who is under investigation.
Vaz said the hotel could be forced to demolish entire floors at its Mahoe Bay property if further investigations reveal a zoning restriction on the number of floors under construction.
"That is the crux of the matter," Vaz said following his four-hour tour of the construction site. He said this question would be one of the foremost to be answered in a full report to be handed over to the prime minister next Monday.
"The question that is to be answered in the report is whether or not there is a restriction on height alone or there is a restriction by the zoning of the area in terms of the amount of floors," Vaz said.
But the junior minister also noted that the hotel would be seeking to put forward an amendment to its building approval, which would be discussed on the return of the prime minister.
"That is what RIU is putting forward that they have submitted a revised plan in order to regularise their existing plan," he said.
The Police Fraud Squad has been asked to investigate who benefited from Brown's actions in stamping the "revised plan" and why no payment was received by the local government body.
Vaz added yesterday that his tour of the property had laid to rest all the contention as to what was approved for the hotel and what was actually there.
The breaches, he said, included height restrictions on at least six of the hotel's buildings as well as the existence of fourth floors when the hotel was only allowed to build three.
He said they also discovered two unapproved basement floors yesterday on two of its buildings, which RIU officials said were for engineering purposes.
Vaz pointed out, however, that the hotel was in compliance of its 701-room density and that RIU had also made an application to replace four of the rooms being demolished on another floor. This, he said, would see them losing in total 20 rooms and bringing the room count down from 701 to 681.
Efforts to reach the parish council's deputy superintendent of roads and works, who was reported to be a part of yesterday's meeting,
proved futile.
For his part, RIU's lawyer, Christopher Bovell, who attended the site meeting, declined to comment, saying that he would not give comments to this particular newspaper, which was practising 'disgraceful journalism' against the RIU Group.
Furthermore, he said, the group had agreed not to comment on the meeting, leaving it instead to Vaz.
The widespread breaches came to light after neighbouring properties complained bitterly that RIU was continuing noisy building activities beyond the hour specified in the building permit, forcing some vacationers to shorten their stay.
The complaints fell on deaf ears, until Prime Minister Golding instructed that an enforcement order be placed on the hotel, to ensure its compliance with the laws of Jamaica.
Last weekend, the Observer also ran a two-part exposé on the travails of Mammee Bay residents battling with RIU Ocho Rios over near similar breaches.
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