Revitalising downtown Kingston can happen quickly, provided it begins with a well-crafted vision and city plan involving broad stakeholder participation. This advice comes from a Jamaican leading planning efforts for one of the US’s largest cities, Philadelphia.
Eleanor Sharpe, Director of the Department of Planning and Development in the City of Philadelphia, says it is possible to develop and implement a plan for the city in 10 to 20 years as done in Philadelphia and the state of Delaware. It should, however, allow all stakeholders to make their inputs and continuous updates.
“One can craft and create a plan that is implementable and can move the needle towards the desired transformative outcome”, Sharpe said.
Eleanor Sharpe, Director of the Department of Planning and Development in Philadelphia and keynote speaker of the Maurice Facey Lecture Series
“However, it is crucial, if not imperative, that a plan starts with creating a vision, one that allows all parties involved to be vested in the outcome and who will then act to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved by participating in the implementation of that said plan”.
Sharpe, an architect and city planner by profession and a graduate of Immaculate Conception High School made the comments in delivering the Maurice Facey Lecture at the Rok Hotel in downtown Kingston on Tuesday, October 31.
The theme for the lecture, which was hosted for the third time, was “The Transformative Power of an Actionable Plan”.
Sharpe spoke on the crafting of a plan responsible for the transformation of large parts of Philadelphia, one of the USA’s oldest cities, which went from a population of two million in the 1900s to 1.5 million today, taking into consideration business, transportation, housing, the environment and other needs.
She said the city plan has been a guiding document which involved essential collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, resulting in approximately 70 per cent of its recommendations being actualised.
She also outlined the achievement of a sister organisation, the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, which transformed the city’s waterfront in less than 10 years.
The lecture series is held in honour of the late Maurice Facey, the founder of Pan Jamaica Group Limited. Facey was known for his passion for urban development, pioneering the development of high-rise commercial and residential buildings in Kingston.
Meanwhile, Stephen Facey, the Chairman and CEO of Pan Jamaica Group Limited, in his remarks, said the importance of a vision and plan for Jamaica’s capital city cannot be overstated.
“With the world rapidly evolving and the effects of urbanization it is crucial to possess a plan for sustainable, inclusive and resilient development. It is not only a tool for directing the formation of the physical environment but also a means of ensuring that our nation is fully prepared to face both the challenges and opportunities of the future”, Facey said.
Michael McMorris, convenor of the downtown Redevelopment Working Group at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, said the body was “focused on bringing stakeholders together to unlock the tremendous unrealised potential of our city centre as a business, residential, leisure and culture hub”.
