Protestors against a controversial special development order (SDO) for Rosewood Tucker’s Point marched on Parliament in a bid to stall yesterday’s debate.About a dozen people turned up in hopes of encouraging Environment Minister Walter Roban to delay the debate for six months.Organiser Ray Charlton said that if permission was granted in principle for the SDO, Tucker’s Point would acquire a right to build that couldn’t be taken away. He said he’d only learned of the debate yesterday, and immediately called the David Lopes talk show asking people to join him outside Parliament at noon.The handful of people that turned up included Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce (BEST) chairman Stuart Hayward and former conservation officer David Wingate.Mr Charlton said he objected on three points.“First, environmentally, no matter what provisions the Minister has in the proposal in principle, habitat will be destroyed. This woodland, which represents a green lung for Bermuda, will be reduced to hedgerows in a development. Second is the social history of that area the way the land was acquired. There’s no need to repeat that story.”The site includes lands taken from mainly black Bermudian families in the 1920s. “This SDO is for real estate developers disguised as hoteliers,” Mr Charlton charged.And he also said the new residential units would have an impact on the rental market, putting pressure on middle class Bermudians.An Environmental Charter signed by then-Premier Jennifer Smith in 2001 stated an impact study would have to be undertaken before an SDO could be debated, he said. He also referred to a legal opinion that he said had been made by the Environment Ministry in 1998, on the issue of SDOs.“It says that if permission in principle is granted, Tucker’s Point will be able to build; it’s just a question of what. If it is granted, the Department of Planning cannot overturn it. Once the SDO in principle is granted, that gives Tucker’s Point the right to build something on that habitat.”Mr Charlton accused Government of “trying to push the debate”.“Let’s have it delayed for six months. Let’s learn if this can really save Tucker’s Point, and let’s learn its real environmental impact. There is so much information we don’t know that to have the debate now is counter-productive.”Dr Wingate said: “I have spent a good part of this last week on site with the SDO maps, studying the lots that are proposed, and to my horror I realised that 60 acres of land can be developed.“Forty of these are forested. It’s densely wooded land on very steep slopes, all in view of Paynters Road.“Previous SDOs were benign in their environmental impact in comparison to this. This new development is not only on a vastly greater scale, but it’s impossible to comply with the restrictions they’re claiming on this SDO.“How can they avoid cutting deep into the ground? It’s impossible to develop on this site without total environmental devastation. There will be an obliteration of the surface environmental features.”Dr Wingate said he hoped members of the public would turn out for an “informative walk” through the area this Sunday, beginning at 2pm.Mr Hayward said of yesterday’s efforts: “We commend members of the public deciding to do this today, to make their voices heard. We at BEST have printed up our own packages of information about the SDO, which we’re giving to every member of the legislature each of the MPs was given one on Friday, and every senator will receive theirs before Wednesday.“Being that this is Budget time, it’s doubtful that members of our legislature will have the time to do the research they need for events that are this complex, so we hope that our information helps.”The package includes a letter citing Planning law written by a previous Environment Minister.According to Mr Hayward, it details an appeal against a planning decision involving the same developers over 12 years ago.It states: “A permission on an in-principle application is a valid planning permission even though the applicant must obtain further approvals before acting on it.”According to Mr Hayward, this means that once the SDO is granted, Tucker’s Point will have permission to build on every area where the zoning restrictions have been removed.Acting Shadow Environment Minister Cole Simons said the United Bermuda Party intended to object to the SDO.He said: “There are some sites proposed for development that we would agree upon. But as the development plan stands at the present, if they’re not going to make amendments to it, then we feel the price tag for Bermuda is too high.”The group of protesters appeared evenly divided between blacks and whites, many of them older people. Thirty-two-year-old Andrew Haak said he had been wearing an anti-SDO sign on his back for two weeks.“I’ve been wearing this on my way to school and to work,” he said. “I think this SDO is pathetic. It’s all about money, and nothing else.”Retired teacher Kay Latter said she had been turning “increasingly green” as she got older. “It seems that if this land had a special designation as woodland, that ought to mean something. And yet apparently, they can just snap their fingers and overturn it.”Protester Penny Hill said: “I couldn’t object to this SDO more strongly, mainly on environmental grounds.“An SDO used to be for major developments of national importance. Now it’s just being used for anything.”