The One Bermuda Alliance and a leading environmental charity have expressed concerns about how the Government is handling the Fairmont Southampton special development order.
Reservations were shared with The Royal Gazette after a statutory instrument was published in the official gazette last week.
Jarion Richardson, the Shadow Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, said “far greater transparency when government is signing away open space for large-scale development” was required.
Meanwhile, Kim Smith, the executive director of the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, said it was imperative that the public has time to consider any alterations that may have been made.
Diallo Rabain, the Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, said last week that the existing order finalises, but does not alter, what Walter Roban, the former Minister of Home Affairs, approved in 2023.
He urged those who object to the SDO to continue voicing their concerns, but said: “As the Government, we need to move forward with projects like this that will benefit us all and outweigh the balance of not satisfying some things, but satisfying most things that need to be done.”
Mr Richardson told The Royal Gazette: “We have always supported the reopening of the Fairmont Southampton hotel and the jobs it will create, but support for the hotel does not mean giving the Government a blank cheque to overdevelop one of Bermuda’s most iconic sites, or to sideline the very planning rules and professionals it once praised.
“The Government approved this SDO in 2023. Two years later it was quietly gazetted as a different legal instrument, using a negative resolution procedure that avoids proactive debate.
“MPs and the public are now told, ‘raise your concerns’, without being shown a clear comparison of what has changed. That is not meaningful consultation; it is going through the motions.
“Before this SDO takes effect, the minister must publish a simple, side-by-side explanation of every change since 2023 — densities, heights, road realignments, conservation areas and any additional concessions — and allow sufficient time for the public and Parliament to scrutinise it. Anything less reduces our planning system to a rubber stamp.
“We reaffirm the OBA’s longstanding position that projects of genuine national importance should come to Parliament under affirmative resolution, so elected members can debate and, where necessary, amend what is put before them.
“That is what we called for in 2023 and it is even more important now that the SDO has finally been gazetted.
“Finally, this SDO must not be used as a back door to further concrete encroachment on green spaces. Bermudians have been clear — we will not trade away our remaining open spaces for concrete skylines and short-term deals.”
Read more here: https://www.royalgazette.com/tourism/news/article/20251124/concerns-raised-over-handling-of-fairmont-southampton-sdo/
