The Corporation of Hamilton is poised to make a major announcement on its plans for the city this week, according to Mayor Jay Bluck who hinted the announcement will encompass the entire city and address its limited space for commercial and residential buildings.

?There must be five or six power cranes operating in the city at this very moment and the pressure on space in the city is enormous,? he said. ?There is no or very little office space. You would think will all the buildings going up there would be tons of office space, but there isn?t and there is also no capacity for retail space. That worries me because how does the city continue to grow??

Mayor Bluck declined to give further details on the pending announcement although he did note that since it is impossible to expand ?sideways?, he believes the answer is in expanding vertically ? redeveloping existing space and going taller.

?We?re going to try to encourage great deal more residential building in the city. Apartment living is going to come to Bermuda and that means urban living to reduce traffic and get economies of scale in building,? he said, adding that people may have to learn to live in smaller spaces. He has previously put forward the idea of building new homes on top of the city?s new multi-storey Hamilton Police Station to encourage city living.

Mayor Bluck referred to his pending announcement while speaking to this newspaper about the Corporation?s stance on the Hamilton docks ? just one component of the Hamilton plan that has been a subject of debate for years.

Prior to his election as the new leader of the corporation, Mayor Bluck was part of the previous Corporation, which unveiled a $639 million blueprint for the Hamilton waterfront. That controversial plan included filling in part of the harbour to create new land for a hotel and housing, plus moving the container docks away from the city and creating new underground parking.

At least one stakeholder is however opposed to moving the docks out of Hamilton. In its annual report this month, Bermuda Container Lines said that with careful planning by stakeholders and given the present level of cargo growth, the docks could be made to work where they are for the next 20 to 25 years.

BCL president Geoffrey Frith said his company supports the current location with its superb location and harbour because the alternatives are so poor.

?It is a wonderful waterfront and better use could be made of it if there were an acceptable alternative, but in our opinion there isn?t an acceptable alternative,? he said.

While the docks may be quite ugly, he added that since 99 percent of what Bermuda consumes is imported, ?life as we know it can?t exist without those docks and there are serious problems with the alternatives?.

He said there was still plenty of opportunity to make the waterfront more attractive in the areas between Albuoy?s Point to the freight docks, spaces currently dedicated to parking.

Alternative locations for the docks include Morgan?s Point, Penno?s Wharf and the North Shore in Devonshire or Pembroke.

Mayor Bluck has previously stated that a move to Morgan?s Point with goods shipped in to the city via a dock for smaller vessels at Spanish Point would add 20 percent to the cost of goods. He also said previously that the Corporation would look sceptically at Marginal Wharf in St. George?s for the new docks as the costs would be so high.

Mr. Frith adds that moving the docks to either end of the Island would cause even greater traffic congestion.

The North Shore is another area that has been pegged as a potential location for the new docks. Mr. Frith?s company views this location as a severe engineering challenge due to winter storms. It would also mean covering a pristine shoreline in concrete.

It is unclear where the new mayor stands on that location ? the only other one that has been suggested as viable.

However, he told this newspaper that he would not be ?totally opposed? to moving the docks from Hamilton if the Corporation continues to get its income ? including wharfage and demurrage and other fees ? from the docks. He would also want proof that moving the docks would not result in a huge cost increase for Bermuda as a whole.

?That is what would worry us very much. Right now we try to watch the costs and we don?t want to let things get out of hand because it affects what people have to pay for merchandise once it gets here,? he said.

The Mayor said he believes the docks could remain where they are for ten to 15 years at the most. By all reports, the docks have been are working very well since one shed was removed.

However, this is partly due to little growth in cargo last year. A huge growth in cargo would mean a lot more pressure on the docks, according to Mayor Bluck.

?Looking at the future, (recently demolished) Number 8 Dock gave us a lot of space and a bit more time but eventually you are either going to have to make them bigger or move them because amount of volume of freight coming in continuously growing,? he said.

Mr. Frith agrees that without the key parties sitting down and making long range plans for the Hamilton docks soon, they will soon run into congestion plans such as those which occurred in 2004.