Changes Made to Tucker’s Point SDO
This evening [Mar.24] the Minister of the Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy Walter Roban confirmed that several changes have now been made to the Tucker’s Point Special Development Order [SDO], and provided a list and site map of the changes.
In the revised draft, the total donated land is around 41.12 acres, the total development area removed from the previous draft SDO is 18.421 acres.
This follows continuous talks between the Government of Bermuda and the Tucker’s Point Club since Friday’s Senate session to consider the concerns expressed by Senators.
A spokesperson said, “In an effort to find the common ground that many expressed a desire to see achieved, Tucker’s Point Club have been more than accommodating in their willingness to adjust its development plans and yesterday presented to Government proposals that they believe will address their need to enhance the tourism product at Tucker’s Point Club while also addressing the concerns expressed by Senators.”
“The Government has studied the proposals and believes that they provide a significant opportunity for this matter to proceed in the Senate. In the revised draft, the total donated land equates to approximately 41.12 acres, which is 20 per cent of the land which belongs to the Tucker’s Point Group of Companies. Furthermore, the total development area removed from the previous draft SDO is 18.421 Acres.”
The site map below depicts the changes, it will enlarge slightly if clicked:
Site 2: Paynters Hill
- The northernmost lot near the tennis courts designated as Lot 8 on the Paynter’s Hill map accompanying the prior SDO would be removed from the Order.
- The southernmost lot designated at Lot 7 map accompanying the prior SDO would be removed from the Order.
- The land not to be developed on Paynter’s Hill approximating 6.59 acres, would be donated to the Government, with a covenant with Government to protect the land in perpetuity.
Site 6: Harrington Sound waterfront
- Comprising 0.487 acres being the land used as a park, and the adjacent site, comprising 0.458 acres, totaling 0.945 acres, to be donated to Government to protect the land in perpetuity.
Site 9: Quarry Hill:
- This is removed from the SDO.
Site 11: Whitecrest Hill
- Development reduced to 45 development lots from 54 development lots.
- A donation of additional 7.44 acres, totaling a donation to Government with a covenant to protect the land in perpetuity, at Whitecrest, of 14.89 acres
- Whitecrest is already zoned Residential 2 and was subject to previous subdivision permission from the Department of Planning enabling development of Whitecrest of 34.590 acres.
Earlier today a Tucker’s Point spokesperson said, “The focus of these meetings has been to explore compromises which balance the needs of Tucker’s Point to develop the Resort while seeking protections to the natural environment of its land holdings.”
“Tucker’s Point has also been in discussion with HSBC Bank of Bermuda which is the lead lender to the company and they have indicated their support of the amendments which they believe will contribute to the financial security of Bermuda’s ultra-luxury resort.
“The proposed manager of the Resort, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, has also indicated its support for the compromises which allow it to operate successfully and introduce Bermuda to its many dedicated clients. Rosewood’s entry into the Bermuda tourism market is dependent on a successful outcome to the SDO debate.”
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Category: All, Environment, News
So,
- Tucker’s Point is still a rich foreign Tucker’s Town resident being allowed an exemption from Planning laws to build houses on protected land.
- HSBC will still be profiting from environmental destruction.
- The PLP are still going up to bat for a foreign developer and foreign bank.
Got it.
1) Tuckets point in a world class hotel property in Bermuda
2) That same bank invested milllions in Developing and building a world class tourism product. You do know that people were employed in the buidling of Tucker’s Point.
3) PLP are going to bat for BERMUDA and tourism, and jobs.
In the end, democracy worked. Will be interesting to see the result in the senate tomorrow. But i’m happy the protests led to the governemt getting all that land for conservation purposes. Better to have it for conservation, than to have it sitting there unattended.
Win for all!
So you concede 1 & 2.
3. Bermuda jobs are essentially unaffected by this SDO – it serves only to postpone entry into receivership, after which the hotel will continue to operate.
It is woodland reserve. Without this SDO it’s ALL for conservation.
“Better to have it for conservation, than to have it sitting there unattended” I’d be interested to know what you think ‘conservation’ means. Do you think someone will be “attending” it to it making sure it’s conserved?
As Al points out, the whole thing was to be for conservation anyway.
Must this new plan be approved by the House first, before Senate approval?
Nope. Senate can amend and then it has to go back to the house.
There is still plenty NOT shown in this overlay.
specifically what happens to the lots propsed between Harrington Sound Rd & the water. All of that land must surely be far larger than the .945acres as listed above. Any building on this land will block views of Harrington Sound currently enjoyed by all. Setbacks, as required by planninng, from road & water cannot be satisfied.
A good start there TP but go back to the drawing board.
This is unbelieveable to me! You are worried about the world knowing that committed citizens are fighting to stop development on land that the country’s Planning Department (and presumably the Minister representing that Department) had zoned for protection? Hey… I would be worried about the world knowing that Bermuda has its own dictatorship set-up going on. To hell with what they people say, the PLP government will do as it wishes… isn’t that right? And the real craziness? The majority will vote them back in time and again. Madness!
Notice no hotel size increase??? Never intended to do so and further proof it has been always been “a real estate deal” in the guise of tourism at the destruction of our protected environment!
I wonder if part of the changes included Col. Burch getting his request in to fire the management team reponsible for TPR’s debt?
I was wondering the same, with Quarry Hill excluded, hmmm, these folks are something else.
The news this morning confirms that the 70 hotel rooms have been left off. If correct this shows that the SDO is a bail out of the lenders and is a real estate deal. Nothing to do with tourism and increasing hotel beds. It should not be passed.
Lied to again…………
LOL
Surely Senator Dunkley has a conflict of interest as President of MOC. If he votes in favour of the revised SDO this could be interpreted as recent deal making (post debate) between MOC and TPC on the back of the beneficial 2000 agreement between the two clubs. Tuckers Point and Mid O are too close to each other to risk a nasty long term relationship.
In all fairness Senator Dunkley does not act alone on behalf of MOC. I’ll bet he has a very capable board of knowledgable minds to give him direction.
Once upon a time, not so long ago Bermuda’s golf-courses had a serious problem with teeming, burrowing land-crabs. They flourished on nitrogenous gardening fertilizer. They could not be controlled with pesticides.
David Wingate was busily restoring Nonsuch Island. He investigated the problem and looked for a solution. From remains in caves, he figured a crab-eating heron had become extinct in Bermuda. From the bones, it was aspecies with a close relative living in Florida, albeit there on a different diet. With Government backing, David Wingate reintroduced the Yellow-crowned Night-heron to Bermuda, starting on Nonsuch. He hand-reared the chicks on land-crab meat, and a crab-eating population re-established on Nonsuch, eventually spilled over to the mainland, roosting in undeveloped woodland, near golf-courses. Herons have since brought the land-crab problem under control, and themselves add to the visual amenity of Bermudian golf-courses. Herons do not roost in manicured gardens. Go figure…
(reference: http://www.ukotcf.org/pdf/calpe/calpe016-024.pdf)
Your Point?
my point: an example of tourism benefitting from golfcourses benefitting from nature conservation and restoration benefitting from environmental knowhow and even fossil bones found in caves… versus not protecting the natural environment, in the supposed interests of tourism…
Conservation does not mean creating golf courses and hotels where there was woodland and marsh. Conservation means keeping land as native woodland and marsh, and keeping native animals and plants, such as land crabs.
Restoration does not mean introducing a non-native bird that might be a similar species to one that existed thousands of years ago when the whole island ecosystem would have been different. Restoration would be turning a golf course back to woodland so a native crab could re-establish itself.
“Restoring” a non-native bird to help a tourist development is not a sound environmental decision.
Mindsets like yours will cause our whole island to be covered in concrete.
Curiouser and curiouser. Read the link, and repent.
Your link does not work
http://www.ukotcf.org/pdf/calpe/calpe016-024.pdf
parenthesis trouble, oops…
Link not working
Yes, and now the NATIVE crabs are almost extinct on the island because of an INTRODUCED bird. Same problem with our endemic skink and endemic snail, which have been wiped out because of introduced species.
What is your point? That native crabs should all be killed because they are annoying on a golf course, but that introduced herons are pretty and should be admired because they roost in golf courses and kill native species, therefore disrupting our entire ecosystem? Guess what, the crabs were here before we were.
Golf courses are better than concrete, but not better than natural woodland and marsh.
Reject the SDO, period. Have a spine Bermuda.
Time to break out the petition again?
http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43111.html
These folks will not stop until the concrete is poured…Period.
This new plan confirms that this is NOT about tourism, but is simply a real estate deal. A wolf in sheeps clothing!
No hotel expansion!!!! Surprise Surprise…it is just a bailout real estate deal after all. Who woulda thought that?
No changes from last friday.
Vote NO to the SDO.
Exactly! This is not about tourism despite what Ed Trippe says…..he needs the money from the sale of legally zoned and protected land to reduce his debt. Period. Why can’t people see this? It is so obvious-Tuckers Point is failing. What boggles the mind is the fact that this is the third SDO they’ve asked for…..and with the haste that the changes to the current SDO have come about, it seems that TP is edging closer to getting this one….the negatives still outweigh any positives(actually, there are none)…..Say NO to this SDO in whatever form!
Still, regardless of the outcome, no-one wants to address the fundamental question as to why can’t I, as a Bermudian, build a house and sell it to a foreigner? For all its pro-Bermudian stance, why has the PLP taken this basic economic ability away from Bermudians yet falls over backwards to allow foreigners to do it? I am beginning to believe that many in the PLP don’t even understand or know the consequences of many laws they have passed.
“I am beginning to believe that many in the PLP don’t even understand or know the consequences of many laws they have passed.”
Aaaaaand we have a winner!
Sounds like discrimination to me… and one can pursue that in a court of law!
Are you serious! The reason is so your grandchildren and great grandchildren have an opportunity to buy property within their own country. If foreigners were able to purchase any property in Bermuda the prices would go through the roof. This is a selfish way of thinking because it may benifit your pocket but ruin it for Bermudians as a whole. Plus I believe that rule was created before PLP was in power by the UBP who was thinking about their country which I give them thumbs up. All PLP has done is reinforced this law.
Sorry thats not how I remeber it at all this was a plp thing. Maybe someone will prove what you are sayin. I’ll see what I can find but as I understand it It was the anti fonting thing Burch was on about.
In utterly shocking news, the changes do not make this any better. I hope that those with the power stand up for what is right for Bermuda.
Hypocrisy at its finest!
The revised SDO cannot move forward without risking a legal challenge… it cannot even remotely be argued to be in the national interest of Bermuda. The TPC business model is outdated and the company seems destined to collapse. Let it collapse now before protected land is sacrificed for the charade.
Many years of work by the government and the input of hundreds, if not thousands, of Bermudians brought about the Bermuda Plan of 2008. This was an expensive, indepth study of Bermuda and a plan for the way forward. Conservation areas were delineated along with residential, tourism etc. Some areas have sacrificed (become predominately industrial/commercial or concentrated residential) so that other areas can be saved. TP Group had the opportunity then to object. I am not aware that they did so. It is ironic that in the UN Year of the Forest, and the first time hosting by Bermuda of the Caribbean Sustainable Tourism conference, the Government is allowing the destruction of Bermuda’s unique natural resources. Yes, TP has offered land to Bermuda – sadly I believe these “throwaway” lots were there to be used as a sop to an unsuspecting public – it is land that either cannot be built on without enormous expense (and where’s the profit in that) or it is a polluted lake.
Finally, I am unable to see how building houses (which will be very costly to build) can mitigate the huge debt? Could someone please explain how this scheme (which bears a very close resemblence to a pyramid scheme) is going to work?
Take this on in the courts and object to every Tuckers Point application^^