The Case Against Moving Black River: What the KFC Building Tells Us

Kingston, Jamaica, 28 January 2026

Three months after Hurricane Melissa, the debate about where to rebuild Black River has taken a specific and practical turn, with a letter to the editor of the Jamaica Gleaner offering a pointed challenge to the government’s plans for an inland urban centre. The letter, written by a business owner in Black River, argues that the Urban Development Corporation does not need to look outside the existing boundaries of the town to find land for reconstruction, and that building a genuinely new city away from the established Black River area would produce something that serves different purposes from those the original town has served for generations.

The argument is grounded in direct observation of the town’s existing landscape rather than abstract planning principles. The writer points to the KFC outlet on High Street, which sits on a substantial parcel of land and, critically, suffered zero damage from Melissa, as evidence that resilient construction in the existing Black River area is possible and that large land parcels in the town itself remain available for redevelopment. Along Central Road, away from the sea, there are significant parcels that could accommodate development without the flood exposure of the most vulnerable coastal sections. The government’s own relief operations, along with those of private companies, were set up on Central Road during the post-storm emergency, in premises that sustained no damage.

The Case for Staying in Place

The letter’s core argument is that a new civic centre built meaningfully outside the greater Black River area will not be Black River, and will not be able to serve the range of functions that the town has performed for three centuries. Black River is not simply an administrative designation. It is a place with specific geographic relationships, including its position at the mouth of the river, its connection to the fishing economy of the surrounding coastline, its role as a tourism gateway and its historic position as a market and service centre for the south St Elizabeth corridor. Those functions depend on the town’s location and cannot simply be transplanted inland without diminishing them.

The observation about the KFC building is architecturally significant. A modern, commercially built structure with proper foundations and construction standards withstood the Category 5 storm. That outcome is not merely a comment on fast food chains. It is a demonstration that properly built structures on existing High Street land can survive Jamaica’s current hurricane conditions. The implication for redevelopment planning is direct: the question is not whether to build in Black River, but how to build there to a standard that makes the investment durable.

Property Rights and the Inland Question

The letter also raises a question that goes beyond planning strategy: the interests of property owners whose land sits in the area earmarked for the new inland urban centre, and who have not yet been consulted by the UDC. Business owners who lost their premises to the storm have a direct stake in the location decisions being made, not least because those decisions will determine whether their land is acquired, whether their businesses can reopen on their existing sites, and whether the investments they have already made in Black River will retain any value.

The government’s commitment to a consultative process is on record. The quality of that consultation, and whether it genuinely incorporates the views of property owners and long-standing residents rather than treating public meetings as a procedural formality before decisions already made are implemented, will be the real measure of whether the process is worthy of the word. Black River’s property owners and business community are not passive recipients of planning decisions. They are stakeholders whose cooperation, investment and continued presence in the town are essential to the success of any rebuild strategy, wherever that strategy locates its civic core.