SaveHopeGardens

CONTRIBUTE CONTENT
You asked for it, so now we have a guestbook. Read the comments, or add your own. If you want a map, press release or other ammunition to be posted on this site, please send it here.

Scroll down to read the highlights, or go directly to any page by clicking the links at left.

Take a closer look at this photo or compare it to a map (1966 government survey) reproduced in Alan Eyre's "The Botanical Gardens of Jamaica".

UPDATE:
We win round one.

Prime Minister PJ Patterson announced on Tuesday, January 11, that with regard to the proposed housing scheme in Hope Gardens, "no such development will proceed as of now". He did not say, as we hastily reported earlier, that "no houses will ever be built" there. Read More...

Read the detailed objections from Vivian Blake, QC, OJ, and John Maxwell, CD.

TO MINISTER DOUGLAS
...it is our contention that the enterprise known as the Hope Country Club cannot be in the public interest and must be in contradiction to every pledge the Government, its Ministers and you as Minister of Housing and Environment in particular have made to safeguard the environment and national heritage. Read More...

TO ESTECH'S EIA
The [Environmental Impact Assessment for the proposed Hope Country Club] is hereby challenged by the undersigned as being inadequate, irrelevant and misleading, and constitutes a dangerous basis on which to make any decision concerning any development on the lands at Hope, St. Andrew.... Read More..

Read the releases

MONA HEIGHTS CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION
...this area should be left for expansion of the zoo [and] car parking area. Space should also be left for further expansion of the University of Technology [to] be integrated with surrounding gardens and parks... [We have] far too many absorption sewer pits serving housing developments in the Liguanea Plains. Read More...

BIRDLIFE JAMAICA
BirdLife Jamaica is the only local organization specifically interested in the conservation of Jamaica’s birds and their habitats. Whereas the organization has not taken a public position on the development itself, BirdLife ... has noted that it finds the results the faunal survey surprising. Read More...

CHALLENGE TO AVIFAUNA SURVEY
...at the site of the proposed Hope Country Club Development ...I recorded 17 Species, or subspecies in my brief [90-minute] survey while the professional survey done by ESTEC recorded only 7, including the Turkey Vulture; I found 4 endemic and they found only 1; I saw over 70 individuals, they reported approximately 10. Read More...

View some of the email sent in protest

PETA-ANNE BAKER, DEPT. OF SOCIOLOGY
At a time when most metropolitan regions are attempting to protect and expand their green spaces, we seem to be determined to limit ours. In doing so we are ignoring the wealth of research which demonstrates clearly that there are not only ecological benefits to be derived, but also that the mental health of us humans is similarly benefitted. Read More...

GLORIA ESCOFFERY
The most urgent need is for this short sighted, in a sense criminal abuse of political power be terminated before the developers are allowed to interfere with the environment and destroy the natural landscape background which is one of the greatest assets of Hope Gardens. Read More...

For a dissenting opinion (in support of the proposed development), we invite you to visit the Gleaner's website where a December 15 article states:

...the reality is that the Hope Gardens site lies idle and is unlikely to see much happen to it unless the development goes ahead. Read More (link opens in new window)..

For those who came in late, we've archived recent articles by John Maxwell who has been writing on this issue since November.

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