Royal Gazette: Timeline angers groups opposed to Fairmont Southampton plan
Environmental groups opposed to the redevelopment of the Fairmont Southampton hotel have cried foul over a government timeline to file objections.
The Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce and the Bermuda National Trust have questioned why they have been given only two weeks to review an 800-page dossier of fresh plans and architectural drawings, submitted by developer Westend Properties immediately before the Cup Match holiday.
Plans were originally submitted at the beginning of April, prompting a wave of protests from campaigners who claimed that the development would destroy the island’s natural habitat.
And in a surprise turnaround last month, Westend — owned by Gencom — agreed to scale back the project, reducing the six-storey suites to buildings of either two or three storeys.
The revised plans — which do little to limit the footprint of the rebuild — were submitted to the Department of Planning on July 27.
Both BEST and the BNT have asked for additional time to review the documents, claiming that they have been given little time to check over the new plans.
In a statement last night, Kim Smith, the president of BEST, said that while the number of pages filed by the developers has increased dramatically, the company had been granted only a few extra days to review the additions.
Ms Smith said that the revised SDO, which is now more than 800 pages of documentation, had resulted in only a slight increase in the time for that review, until August 18.
“The revised SDO was gazetted on July 27, and only the minimum two-week review period was being applied, meaning that the objection period was initially due to end on August 10. We asked for the review period to be extended to six weeks, giving a deadline date of September 7.