More affordable housing units completed at Grand Atlantic
The second phase of the Grand Atlantic affordable housing condominium complex has been completed, bringing the total number of finished units to 51.Government now has to pay about $14 million to the developer before the end of this month.A certificate of use and occupancy for blocks E, H and J, representing 27 units of the South Shore development, in Warwick, was issued by the Department of Planning on April 20.On Wednesday, developer Gilbert Lopes said the third phase, consisting of a further 27 units, will be ready in August. The Bermuda Housing Corporation has an option for a fourth phase — of 47 more units, he revealed.As of February none of the 24 units build in the first phase, which was completed late last year, had been sold.Contacted with the news that the second phase has been completed, Stuart Hayward, chairman of sustainability advocacy group, Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, reiterated the group’s position that the project should end.“If you see that you are doing something that isn’t working, you stop. That’s a fundamental principle of life.“If you’re digging a hole and you find yourself getting deeper then you stop digging.”He said that the development is an “eyesore” and a “planning nightmare”.“It looks like they are quarrying sand which I don’t think they have permission to do,” Mr Hayward continued.“It looks like they are burying rubble on the site which I don’t think they have permission to do.”He added that an environmental impact assessment had not been done for the project — something the government has committed to do.“This whole thing is a nightmare and to see it just being pushed ahead it just makes one wonder at the wisdom that is being exercised here — or the lack of it.”This week The Royal Gazette received complaints that construction rubble was buried on the site. This has been refuted by developer Mr Lopes.When contacted, Marc Bean, Minister for Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy issued a statement saying that they had received a complaint about the burial of waste at the site.“The complaint has been investigated, the developer has been ordered to cease the practice, he has complied, and is now cleaning up the site,” he said.For his part, Mr Lopes said there was no intention of leaving the waste on the site.He said that he had excavated soil and sand, to be used in ongoing construction, from an area which is to become the parking lot for a planned hotel. Rubble from a demolition job had been placed temporarily in the excavated space, he said.In 2007, Government granted Atlantic Developers a Special Development Order (SDO) for the South Shore site for a 220-room hotel. Two years later, Premier Ewart Brown announced the Grand Atlantic Project which was set to include 125 affordable housing units and a 100-room hotel on the site of the former Golden Hind resort.BEST, along with environmentalists including David Wingate, expressed concern about the proximity of the development to a cliff, but developer Gilbert Lopes responded that geological surveys had been carried out, proving the safety of the site.None of the first 24 housing units on the site, completed late last year, has been sold as of February. Government recently announced that 100 percent financing on the units would be made available through a partnership between the Government and Butterfield Bank.Public Works Minister Michael Weeks has said the planned hotel “would be considered once all the units are done.”He was asked on Tuesday a series of questions about the project, including the payment schedule, an indication of when the second phase units would be put on the market and how many of the first phase units had actually been sold to date.The Minister did not respond.
Plans for the Grand Atlantic condominium complex in Warwick have mysteriously disappeared from the Department of Planning.
Staff members have indicated that the plans vanished a while ago. The Ministry of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy is now investigating the matter.
According to Environment Minister Marc Bean, a new set of plans will be reprinted and made available for public scrutiny.
The matter came to light when
The Royal Gazette visited the Planning Department on Tuesday to examine the Grand Atlantic file.A file was presented but no one could say where the actual plans were.The Grand Atlantic Project is set to include 125 affordable housing units and a 100-room hotel on the site of the former Golden Hind resort. Fifty-one of the housing units have been completed to date (see separate story).It is understood that a steady stream of people visiting the Planning Department to view the plans have been sent home luckless in recent months.One Warwick resident said she had been told by a staffer that plans for Special Development Order projects are not normally made available to the public.“The Department of Planning regrets that the plans are not currently available, is investigating why this is so, and have ordered a new set of plans. As soon as the plans have been reprinted, they will once again be available to the public,” said Mr Bean.“The Department of Planning wishes to clarify that all plans submitted to the department in support of a development application are available for public scrutiny, including those approved via a special development order.”Stuart Hayward of Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce was unimpressed when told that the plans of the controversial project had disappeared.“We would expect that a full set of all relevant documents would be available,” he said.“The plans should be available and they should not only be available to the public but particularly available to those people who have a stake in the development. That would include ourselves because we are concerned about the environmental impact and the social impact of the development.“We don’t know where the hotel is going to be built. So this issue of not having access to the plans is a very important one.”Mr Hayward added: “It’s a key one for the developer who should be held accountable. It’s a key one for the residents and it’s important for organisations like yourselves who are trying to inform the public.”The Warwick resident, who does not want to be named, said that activity at the site was of concern to people in the area.“I see a lot of buildings, nine of them, and a major excavation where they have moved sand and I have no idea what is going to be built there,” she said.“I want to know what it’s going to look like. Right now it’s high density and lots of concrete. So I went to Planning and the site plans are not in the files.“People in the area are very concerned. It’s a major excavation and no plans are available.”Mr Hayward had reported in March that he had noticed that the plans had not been available since February. It is not clear whether they resurfaced later before going missing again.There was no response from Government when asked how long had the plans been missing and when the new set of plans will be available.The Planning Department moved from the Government Administration Building to the new Dame Lois Browne Evans a year ago.
