St George’s residents have met with representatives from Government and the proposed Park Hyatt resort over plans to put a sewage treatment facility in their backyard.David Hillier, a member of a group called the Old Military Road Task Force, said he and his neighbours are worried that the proposed development will lead to noise, odour and decreasing property values, which they feel could be avoided by moving the waste facility away from residential areas. “They were leased 128 acres. We are talking about one,” he said. “We are very, very concerned that obviously the quality of life will change for the rest of our lifetimes.”Plans for the proposed resort include several condominiums, fractional units and hotel buildings at the former Club Med resort site. The plans also allow for a reverse osmosis facility and a sewage treatment plant in a residential area to the south of the main resort. Mr Hillier said that around 300 people live in the area, and they are concerned about the impact the facilities could have.“The people that have lived in this area have lived there most of their lives. They have bought their houses. Those houses are their lives,” he said. “They have invested heavily in fixing them up and with this happening, we feel the value of the houses will drop dramatically.“We’re not saying they shouldn’t use the land. They could place offices or a machine shop [there].”Around 45 residents recently discussed their concerns with Deputy Premier Derrick Burgess, St George Mayor Kenneth Bascome and E Michael Jones, who spoke on behalf of the developer. Mr Hillier said Mr Jones told the crowd that the sewage facilities would be state-of-the-art, creating no odour or noise. The task force has proposed three alternate sites for the sewage facilities. Mr Hillier said Mr Jones said the site marked on the plan was ideal because it was compact and because of its proximity to the resort.Mr Hillier said he was told that developers wanted to keep one of the alternate sites the task force selected as woodland reserve; another was earmarked as a space for future expansions.Mr Burgess promised those at the meeting that he would look into the proposed alternate sites, Mr Hillier said. Despite his concerns, Mr Hillier expressed hope that the plans could be adapted to satisfy everyone.“They have not gone through Planning yet and so construction hasn’t started so there is still time to change this,” he said. “We want to embrace the hotel. We know we need a hotel and we want to see it happen and we want to be seen as good neighbours, and them as good corporate citizens.“But to take this property and jam this idea to the residents is not going down at all very well.”Mr Bascome said he was optimistic that a happy medium could be found. Mr Jones acknowledged that a meeting was held but declined to comment any further.