A landowner who won an appeal to build a ten-storey housing complex has applied for the site to be zoned as industrial and not residential.

Nelson Hunt of Southlands Ltd. launched an objection to the Draft Bermuda Plan 2008 to have the land at Hunt's quarry, in Warwick, changed from residential, despite submitting a planning appeal at the same time for the accommodation block.

Mr. Hunt, together with Craig Christensen and Brian Duperreault, was recently granted the planning appeal for Southlands staff housing by Environment Minister Glenn Blakeney.

The decision which went against a Planning Inspector's advice and the Development Applications Board (DAB), was slammed by the Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST).

The organisation said Mr. Blakeney had set a "disturbing" precedent in overruling Planning officials.

It added: "In an unusual twist, at the same time as the applicants were applying to built a residential unit on the site, they were applying to have the zoning of that site changed from residential to industrial.

"The re-zoning, which has in effect been achieved, renders the building application a 'non-conforming' use for the new zoning, according to the Bermuda Plan.

"BEST is alarmed that the mechanisms enacted into law by Parliament to regulate development are more frequently being overturned, bypassed or subverted by Government Ministers not acting in the public interest as they are mandated to do."

Mr. Blakeney said he gave the development in Warwick, the go-ahead because "sustainable development does not mean no development".

However, one of the conditions for planning approval was that no other industrial uses be permitted in addition to the retail warehousing space in the complex.

Despite this however, the land looks set to be rezoned as industrial. The Department of Planning has backed Mr. Hunt's objection to the Draft Bermuda Plan 2008.

The site in question Hunt's Quarry, is also known as 'Todding's Quarry' and is 3.69 acres in size.

A Planning Tribunal document states: "The Department of Planning considers that given the long history of general industrial uses on the site, the existing industrial uses on the site, the subdivision approval for industrial lots on the site, and the 100 feet vertical quarry faces on two sites of the site which detract from the residential amenity of the site, this site is more suited to an industrial zoning than a Residential One zoning.

"As such, the Department supports the request to rezone the Residential One portion of this site to industrial."

Mr. Hunt argued the site had been used for industrial purposes for the past 20 years. In his objection, recently heard by the Draft Bermuda Plan Tribunal, he said Planning officers had subdivided the site into ten industrial lots in January 2002.

Stuart Hayward, chairman of BEST, launched a counter-objection at the Tribunal.

In a letter to Planning he said Mr. Hunt's staff housing complex, if granted planning approval, would constitute "a non-conforming development within an industrial site".

"In effect, the objector is attempting to win approval for a building application at the same time he is attempting to have the land in which the building would sit be re-zoned to a category that would prohibit the building," said Mr. Hayward.

"We understand that the Department of Planning has negotiated and deemed the objection 'resolved' with the recommendation that the rezoning be 'light industrial'.

"If the site is to be rezoned, we would concur that the new zoning be 'light industrial' so the surrounding areas are not compromised in accordance with the Draft Bermuda Plan 2008 Ch. 31: Industrial IND (2)."

The Tribunal's decision on the land's rezoning will not be announced to the public until early 2010, and then has to be approved by the Minister.

Mr. Hayward however, believes the Tribunal has upheld Mr. Hunt's objection.

"The change of use from Residential to Industrial, which was successfully negotiated with the DOP, appears to now make the dormitory a 'non-conforming use' for the land," he said yesterday.

The Environment Minister was unavailable for comment last night.

Mr. Hunt was also unavailable for comment.