NEPA To Undertake Settlement Boundary Delineation Project In St. Mary

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) will begin a settlement boundary delineation project in St. Mary in June as part of efforts to guide sustainable development and monitor urban growth across the parish.

The disclosure was made by Physical Planner in the National Spatial Strategy Branch of NEPA’s Spatial Planning Division, Ockera Moulton-Fearon, during the monthly Physical Planning, Environment and Development Committee meeting of the St. Mary Municipal Corporation on Thursday (May 21).

“Currently, the parish is under the jurisdiction of the St. Mary Confirmed Development Order 2019 and what we know is that the Social Development Commission (SDC) has on record that there are 176 districts grouped in 47 communities,” she said.

“The aim of NEPA, through the National Spatial Strategy Branch, is to delineate all of those settlements,” she pointed out.

Explaining that a delineation exercise “is really just outlining the borders of a particular space,” she informed that the process will involve an environmental and planning audit of settlements across the parish.

The data gathered will be analysed and used to inform recommendations for future planning and development.

“The importance of the delineation exercise is to establish the physical limits of a settlement so as to distinguish one settlement from another [in order to reduce] the further spread of peri-urban development and sprawl,” Mrs. Moulton-Fearon noted.

“We want each settlement to be separate and almost heterogeneous,” she pointed out.

Mrs. Moulton-Fearon said the initiative forms part of NEPA’s mandate to protect the natural environment and habitats while ensuring orderly and sustainable development.

She explained that the exercise will allow the agency to assess settlement growth patterns, apply planning control mechanisms and determine whether areas are suitable to accommodate sustainable expansion.

Highlighting the need for the project, Mrs. Moulton-Fearon referenced a 2022 Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) report, which identified Port Maria, Highgate, Annotto Bay, Gayle, Oracabessa, Retreat and Islington as established urban areas within the parish.

She pointed out, however, that communities such as Tower Isle and Prospect are now exhibiting more urban characteristics.

“There is need for us to go out and do this delineation exercise because growth is happening,” she said.

“Additionally, we’ve found that in the Draft National Spatial Strategy that Belfield and Castleton are proposed as district centres and within the settlement strategy [there are] areas that are still undesignated… Enfield and Bonny Gate fall within that category,” Mrs. Moulton-Fearon indicated.

She told the committee that the field surveys will commence in June and continue afterwards as NEPA examines land-use trends and development patterns within built-up areas.

“We have a survey tool that we have devised, and we’ll be looking at the social and economic profiles and creating reports,” Mrs. Moulton-Fearon said, noting that the findings will be tabulated and used to make recommendations going forward.

“We’re expecting that the boundaries of the different settlements will be clearly defined and…logical,” she added.

She said that the exercise is expected to support both NEPA and the St. Mary Municipal Corporation in guiding future planning and sustainable development initiatives across the parish.