Southlands

The Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) are concerned more about what is omitted by the just-published SDO for Southlands than be what is contained.

The most serious omission is that of the impact of this development when added to next door Atlantic Ltd. Development. The people depend on the government to consider the combined effects of neighbouring developments. It is totally unacceptable for the government to treat these adjacent developments as though there is no interaction, no combined impacts: environmental, visual, on traffic, on power supply and prices, on housing availability and prices, and on the cultural integrity of the neighbourhood.

The bottom line is that with the issuance of the final SDO, another nine storey hotel, along with four or five dozen other multistory buildings, is going to be built right on the shoreline, right next door to another nine storey hotel with additional multi-storey buildings. The requirements of the SDO do nothing to change that.

The conditions of the SDO do nothing to avert the loss of 37 acres of greenfield site being developed with concrete and glass while already-developed brownfield acres around the island sit idle.

The conditions of the SDO do nothing to soften the impact of two hotel developments, side-by side, that will add perhaps thousands of new residents to an already congested area, add to traffic congestion, add to housing demands and shortages, swallow up hundreds of yards of beach, and exacerbate already tense social conditions.

Several clauses of the document itself deserve comment:

Several requirements now have timetables (3)(2)(k, m &n). This is an improvement over the original draft.

However, one point that has not been addressed (3)(2)(c) on the proposed tunnel: Who is going to cover the costs of diversion, construction, oversight and upkeep for the new roadway?

Also, as the overpass sections of the new roadway constitute newly created land area over the heads of travelers on the public road, what value has been placed on this newly created land? And what are the developers giving in exchange for this addition to their real estate?

The draft SDO contained the following clause:
(3) (2) (c) prior to the approval of a building permit the applicant shall obtain planning permission for staff housing;

That clause has been omitted in the final SDO, consequently there is no reference to the dormitory hotel slated for the Hunt industrial property off Khyber Pass which was previously linked to the Southlands development and must also be considered as part and parcel of the Southlands development. The developers must not be allowed to shield a ten storey hotel intended to house 400 immigrant workers from planning and public scrutiny. If an argument being made for Southlands’ approval is that the developers are providing housing for the construction and/or operational workforce, then that housing unit must pass muster and receive approval before the Southlands development itself is approved.
The SDO requires further study and we will have further comment in due course.