Garcia: East PoS population will triple

This was the plan outlined to Sunday Newsday by Housing Development Corporation (HDC) chairman Noel Garcia in an interview at his South Quay office on Friday.

He warned of “snake oil salesmen who are trying to revive their political careers.”

Garcia declared, “We are in a ‘conspiracy’ to bring more people to live in Port-of-Spain.”

He gave some details of the plans for urban renewal, but did not reveal the grand design which he said would be published on April 10.

Although Garcia gave individual answers to specific questions, he failed to paint a picture of what a new East Port-of-Spain would look like. Reading between the lines, one got the impression it was going to become very high rise, with Garcia talking of two-storey to ten-storey buildings.

He said the HDC will change the whole scale of the streets in East Port-of-Spain. The plan will cover an area equivalent of 22 city blocks.

Garcia justified the reconstruction by saying he wants to match the development of the waterfront and to “make East Port-of-Spain into a part of the city that lives.”

“We want to restore balance in growth and to take away from the creation of ‘two cities’, the modern versus the decrepit.” He said the HDC is developing the city in a wholesome manner that will benefit everyone. It will become a mixed community populated by low, middle and high-income earners.

“We’ll give it a new look, and breathe new life into Port-of-Spain,” Garcia said.

Garcia pointed out that Port-of-Spain is one of the few cities that has been losing its population over the years, saying it fell from 100,000 residents in the 1960s to a current 40,000.

“This plan seeks to have people live in the city.”

People would be able to live, work and play in Port-of-Spain, he hoped.

Asked if it was a high-rise development, Garcia opted to instead describe it as “high density” living in buildings of two-storeys to ten-storeys high. Examples of the latter, he said, already exist in the HDC flats at South Quay.

Garcia said the redevelopment would affect some 700 to 750 existing households comprising about 3,000 people.

Of these, he said, about 680 people would be moved out temporarily during the 14-months of reconstruction to be housed in about 20 HDC properties in locations as varied as Port-of-Spain, Diego Martin, Tunapuna, Champs Fleurs, and then return to the new buildings.

He remarked, “Over 50 percent of these people want to buy their own homes and move out of the area.”

The HDC will issue a legal guarantee of residence to private owners and renting tenants in the affected areas.

“It will be a guarantee that they will have the opportunity of an apartment at the end of the construction.”

The new apartments would consist of “social housing” where rent level will be income-based and means-tested, units for sale at “market driven” prices, and rent-to-own units costing $500 to $600 per month. There will be 2,500 units in all, of which 30 percent will be social housing, and 70 percent will be for sale. The reconstruction would be done in phases.

Garcia said the HDC might initiate construction of new housing on relatively empty lands on a wedge of land bounded by the East Dry River, the Priority Bus Route and the Bypass. This might save people having to move twice, he suggested.

These buildings could be occupied by existing residents of two other areas to be rebuilt. These are the eight city blocks bounded by George Street, East Dry River, Duke Street and Independence Square, and the three city blocks bounded by Besson Street, St Paul Street, Piccadilly Link Road, and St Paul’s Sports Complex.

Garcia was very optimistic about the project, even welcoming the many public consultations he had held.

“Change is uncomfortable” he said. “But if we neglect this part of East Port-of-Spain, we will reap the whirlwind,” Garcia noted.

He recalled facing similar objections when he had built Brian Lara Promenade and the City Gate Terminus.

“Vision and resolve get things done,” he said.