Land Development Laws to be Amended

Minister of State in the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Hon. Ian Hayles, says several key statutes, which deal with land development, are slated to be amended in Parliament this year.

Making his contribution to the 2013/14 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 18, Mr. Hayles said these include: the Crown Property Vesting Act; the Registration (Strata) Titles Act; and the Land Surveyors Act.

Providing details, he informed that the Registration (Strata) Titles Act, which is expected to be brought to “Parliament very soon to table two amendments”, will remove some of the challenges the members of the executive committee have been experiencing when exercising the Power of Sale Certificates.

In addition, new regulations will be implemented under the Land Surveyor’s Act to require that all survey plans be tied into the national grid.

“This is necessary if we are to use those plans to build the national cadastral map. We need this map to make land titling cheaper and more efficient. The draft regulations are now being finalised by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and we are moving towards having it promulgated this year,” he said.

The Crown Property Vesting Act seeks to enshrine the Land Divestment Advisory Committee (LDAC) in statute, and outline the composition of the Committee, its appointment and other related matters.

In the meantime, Mr. Hayles stated that the Government’s efforts to strengthen land surveying capabilities have been boosted with the recent acquisition of a Virtual Reference Station (VRS).

Dubbed the gFIX.net, the system is a configuration of 13 high precision global navigation satellite system (GNSS) continuously operating reference stations (CORS), strategically positioned across Jamaica, and is managed and maintained by the National Land Agency (NLA).

He noted that gFIX.net is positioned to revolutionise the surveying and construction sectors, enabling increased accuracies with enhanced performance and reliability.

“In addition to improved productivity for cadastral surveying, surveying and plan checking turnaround times should be drastically reduced upon the implementation of the system,” he said.

Contact: Chris Patterson