By Robert A Emmanuel
Government is poised to meet with property owners in St John’s City for consultations on sprucing up the nation’s capital.
Cabinet said yesterday that efforts to improve the city’s aesthetics – which could include legal changes to compel building owners to meet a certain standard – remain a priority.
Speaking at Thursday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of Information Melford Nicholas said the city has suffered from the growth of international shipping companies which has resulted in reduced revenue for local businesses.
“The retail trade has certainly been impacted by e-commerce and by the logistics of US mailboxes and so many of the businesses in St John’s have now become inviable, in respect of having to maintain those plants and of course reinvest in them,” he explained.
Minister Nicholas said there was a “pressing need to reconceptualise” the use of St John’s whilst retaining its cultural heritage.
He told the briefing that this reconceptualisation could be a long-term process which would review vending in the city.
“We perceive that there has to be a multi-stakeholder engagement [involving] the vending community, the St John’s Development Corporation and ultimately… one would expect that once the master plan has been developed, approved, and agreed, then… there will be zones within that master plan where certain types of businesses will operate and it will not be amorphous free for all,” Minister Nicholas explained.
In the short term, the Cabinet will be looking to the Ministry of Health to review the possibility of “small sewage plants attached to each building’s grey water system that would purify the run-off so that the flowing effluent that now spoils the air will be eliminated”.
The minister noted that the expected goal to improve the state of the city similarly to other Caribbean countries, may take more than a decade to truly complete.
“The idea of renewing St John’s and repurposing it has always been a thing that successive and previous governments had wished to do.
“Here, we are saying now with the investments that we have made on the port of St John’s with respect to the cruise port… we believe that St John’s could play a greater role in getting more [revenue] from the cruise industry by offering more services,” he added.
Minister of Tourism Charles Fernandez, who is also responsible for the St John’s Development Corporation, is expected to lead the consultations for the government.