TCPD in advanced stage of SPGs for T&T (Trinidad Guardian)

Author: Guardian News Desk

Link to original article

Story published in the Trinidad Guardian on Friday 13 December, 2019.

Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is has an­nounced for pub­lic in­for­ma­tion that the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning Di­vi­sion (TCPD) is in the ad­vanced stages of de­vel­op­ing new Spa­tial Planning Guide­lines (SPGs) for Trinidad and Tobago.

This project will stan­dard­ise site de­vel­op­ment stan­dards and plan­ning guide­lines for
eigh­teen 18 types of de­vel­op­ment cat­e­gories, and are ex­pect­ed to guide de­vel­op­ers and ap­pli­cants when ob­tain­ing plan­ning per­mis­sion by fa­cil­i­tat­ing more in­formed de­ci­sions on the type of de­vel­op­ment which can be pur­sued in dif­fer­ent lo­cal­i­ties, there­by avoid­ing the sub­mis­sion of re­dun­dant ap­pli­ca­tions and min­imis­ing the like­li­hood of ap­pli­ca­tion re­fusals.

The guide­lines have been draft­ed, and this week, the TCPD con­duct­ed stake­hold­er
val­i­da­tion work­shops to re­view the drafts.

The Min­istry said this is the stage be­fore fi­nal­i­sa­tion of the SPGs.

It said ar­chi­tects, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the T&T Plan­ners As­so­ci­a­tion, WASA, The Trinidad and Tobago Fire Ser­vice, The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) and The Ministry of Rural Development and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment were among the State and pri­vate en­ti­ties who are al­so part of this process.

 

The new SPGs are sim­pler, more fo­cused guide­lines, and will re­place the old­er and large­ly out­dat­ed Guide to De­vel­op­ers which cur­rent­ly ex­ists. The new guide­lines will as­sist cit­i­zens through the use of il­lus­tra­tions, mak­ing them more user friend­ly. These new guide­lines are
al­so meant to in­crease pub­lic con­fi­dence and cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion in the de­liv­ery of TCPD’s ser­vices by in­creas­ing trans­paren­cy and
re­duc­ing vari­abil­i­ty in the de­ci­sions made by staff.

De­vel­op­ers of all types will soon eas­i­ly have ac­cess to what they can and can­not do for a num­ber of de­vel­op­ment ac­tiv­i­ties.

The Min­istry said in keep­ing with the Plan­ning and Fa­cil­i­ta­tion of De­vel­op­ment Act (PAFD), this project will stan­dard­ise site de­vel­op­ment and plan­ning guide­lines for the eigh­teen 18 types of de­vel­op­ment cat­e­gories list­ed be­low:

• Gas Sta­tion and CNG Sta­tions
• Ceme­ter­ies, cre­ma­to­ri­ums and fu­ner­al homes
• Dri­ve­ways and right of ways
• Granny flats, maid quar­ters and tiny hous­es
• Home-based oc­cu­pa­tion
• Base­ment res­i­den­tial park­ing
• Mixed-use de­vel­op­ment
• Places of wor­ship
• Small scale vil­lage in­dus­tri­al ac­tiv­i­ties
• Re­sort de­vel­op­ment
• Brown­field de­vel­op­ment guide­lines
• In­dus­try – specif­i­cal­ly Heavy In­dus­try
• Ware­hous­ing
• Land­scape De­sign Guide­lines
• De­sign­ing and cre­at­ing places for peo­ple
• Cli­mate change adap­ta­tion de­sign guide­lines (for wa­ter­front ar­eas)/ Coastal
  De­vel­op­ment – in­clu­sive of cli­mate change/ ris­ing sea lev­el mit­i­ga­tion and flood prone ar­eas
• Pub­lic spaces, recre­ation, parks, trails and green/ open spaces
• Guide­lines for Green build­ing con­struc­tion and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) cer­ti­fi­ca­tion (al­so to in­clude guide­lines on ur­ban roof-top farm­ing)

The Min­istry said this de­liv­er­able is one facet of the TCPD’s over­all trans­for­ma­tion project which in­cludes digi­ti­sa­tion of the TCPD’s records, au­toma­tion of the con­struc­tion per­mit­ting sys­tem and en­hanced ser­vice de­liv­ery.