Parliamentary Question Time Reveals That There Will Be No New Affordable Homes For Residents Of The Apple Blossoms Development In West Bay This Christmas

By Alric Lindsay

Residents of the Apple Blossoms development were treated to good news in May 2024 when the construction of 60 new affordable homes (to be called “Birch Tree Heights”) was announced.  However, during question time of the fourth sitting of the second meeting of Parliament on December 13, 2024, it was revealed that the new affordable homes will be ready for Christmas. Instead, the homes will be completed using a “phased approach,” with 14 to be done initially.

Responding to a progress update question from MP Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, the Minister of Planning, Agriculture, Housing Infrastructure, Transport and Development, Jay Ebanks, explained:

… the development of the new Birch Tree Heights (formerly Apple Blossom subdivision) continues to be a priority for me and the Ministry.

I can confirm that since the groundbreaking ceremony in May, plans are progressing.

I am reliably informed by the National Housing Development that subdivision plans were modified to provide a greater efficiency of the land use that will accommodate the 60 homes.

But there will be a phased construction approach for the development with the first phase consisting of the 14 homes.

L-R: Minister of Planning Jay Ebanks and MP Katherine Ebanks-Wilks at May 2024 groundbreaking

Expanding on the reasons behind the phased approach, the Minister of Planning noted that residents raised concerns over a proposed stormwater management plan and how which may impact properties.

The Minister of Planning elucidated:

… some of the delays that we’ve had with the Apple Blossom site in West Bay was [that] we had some kickback from some of the residents in the neighbourhood… it was about a storm water management sector of it.

I think the National Trust may have been owning part of the property to the backside of it and wanting to create a section of the property to the back with a pond into it.

And the neighbours were a little bit concerned that when we started to fill the property up that they actually wrote in to us about negotiating and trying to figure out how the water was going to run.

The Minister of Planning continued:

I think the member for West Bay Central actually met with some of the neighbours talking about that. That has been some of the delays that we’ve had of going back to recreate a whole new stormwater management for the property to make sure that not only those that are in Apple Blossom were protected, but the neighbours on the outside of that were not going to be affected because they were saying that most of the water that runs off from them were running into the pond, part of the pond that we were actually filling in for the 60 homes.

That’s why we looked at it now to take it as a phased approach and say, okay, Mr. Speaker, the 14 homes that we wanted to start was to be able to transition the people from on the original site into the onto the new site.

Based on the issues discussed in Parliament about the stormwater management plan issues, it is unclear when the initial 14 homes will be completed and whether the full set of 60 homes will be completed by the April 2025 election.

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