North Coast development

By mid-2001, the National Environment and Planning Agency had been in full operation for over a year, and the first patterns of its approvals practice were becoming discernible. The agency was processing a substantially larger volume of coastal development applications than its predecessor bodies had handled.

By the summer of 1998, the all-inclusive resort model had become so dominant on Jamaica’s north coast that a significant proportion of the island’s premium beach frontage was now functionally inaccessible to Jamaicans who were not guests at the properties controlling it.

The third quarter of 1997 saw the Mammee Bay area of St. Ann become a focal point in the north coast beach access debate. Development that had proceeded along the bay’s frontage had left public access to the beach in a state that advocates characterised as functionally inadequate.

The third quarter of 1996 saw the north coast resort corridor between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios filling in with new construction at a pace that observers described as unprecedented in the post-independence period. The investment climate was strongly positive and the development pipeline was full.

By the final quarter of 1995, the resort reconstruction following Hurricane Gilbert’s 1988 devastation was substantially complete, and Jamaica’s north coast was operating more resort capacity than it had before the storm. The completion of reconstruction marked the transition from recovery to a new development boom phase.