By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday pledged the Government is taking the first steps to "eat the elephant" and end the 10-year wait for Land Use Plans that are demanded by Bahamian law.

Desmond Bannister, minister of works, told Tribune Business that Department of Physical Planning officials had agreed to report back to him by November 2020 on how far they had progressed in developing a Land Use Plan for New Providence.

Acknowledging that such planning tools will guide The Bahamas away from "ad hoc" development and towards more disciplined growth, Mr Bannister also conceded that several Supreme Court rulings had found the Government guilty of breaching the Planning and Subdivisions Act 2010.

This made the development of Land Use Plans for every Bahamian island a legal requirement, but successive PLP and FNM administrations did precious little to give this effect even though the Act paved the way for more orderly development and the use of planning to build greater community resilience to flooding and other natural disasters.

"Over the years there's been lots of starts and stops with Land Use Plans," Mr Bannister admitted to this newspaper. "We're finally making some progress. We have a date in November when the Department of Physical Planning is supposed to report to me on certain steps they've agreed they can take by then to advance a Land Use Plan for New Providence.

"We've been very grateful for the advice of Pericles Maillis who has been involved with this from the start. The development of a Land Use Plan for New Providence, much less the country, has been a challenge. They're [the Department] going to get back to me by November with the initial progress on the first steps I've asked them to look at."

Warning that the creation of Land Use Plans for every Bahamian inhabited island will not happen "overnight", Mr Bannister said the effort would last across multiple administrations and be taken "step by step".

"You know the old saying about how do you eat an elephant," he told Tribune Business. "We'll take one little piece at a each time, and hopefully get the elephant over a long period of time."

Mr Bannister admitted that the Government's failure to comply with the Planning and Subdivisions Act had resulted in it being found at fault "in a lot of court orders", and he pledged: "Now we're moving full steam ahead.

"I'm not sure what the ultimate cost is going to be. We're going to take the preliminary steps and keep moving ahead. I'm sure someone else will be there to tackle the Family Islands.

"The whole country has been built in an almost ad hoc manner. We can see that. It was based on exigencies as they occurred over time... Now you are going to see some real planning and development, which will take place over the next few years, but it will not be an overnight thing."

Mr Bannister's comments came as two recent Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) reports, one dealing with the creation of the Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction, and the other with Hurricane Dorian, noted The Bahamas' failure to develop Land Use Plans as a planning tool that could aid disaster resilience.

With another storm heading towards The Bahamas, the report on the ministry said: "Despite the approval of the Planning and Subdivision Act in 2010 (that requires the development of a Land Use Plan for each island of The Bahamas, consistent with all National Land Use Development Policies), practical development and operationalisation of such plans is still underway in many of the islands.

"Ensuring and promoting data accessibility, and the technical capacity for local authorities to access and interrogate the existing hazard and risk data, as well as the correct use of these data in the development of territorial land-use/zoning planning, are critical factors to build increased resiliency against escalating climate hazards."

The Dorian-related report added: "Reconstruction in coastal zones that provide hurricane resistance/buffer zones are to be avoided. Implementation of protected areas in selected zones, as part of the existing plan of expanding the Marine Protected Area network in the country, should be followed through as are nature-based solutions to harmonise different land uses in the reconstruction plan.

"The deficiencies in construction and maintenance practices are exacerbated by absent or incipient territorial planning. To enhance resilience, it is recommended that exposed communities and flood prone areas be identified. By collecting data and mapping all low areas with risk of flooding, a zoning system can be generated. This system could be the determinant factor for allowing future construction developments.

"Given the exposure of the country to natural hazards and the repeated damage to infrastructure located close to the shoreline or in flood-prone areas, it is imperative to design zoning plans. Although this action is socially, culturally and economically costly, it can no longer be postponed.

"The opportunity should especially be seized in settlements that were completely or almost destroyed and must be rebuilt, as they provide the right conditions to pilot the design and construction of resilient communities. Spatial planning plans must also consider the role of ecosystems as first defense barriers and should encourage ecosystem protection and recovery."