The decision to allow agricultural land to be built on as part of the Pink Beach redevelopment has been criticised by the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce.

Grant Gibbons, as the acting Minister of Home Affairs, granted Sardis Development Ltd planning approval on appeal citing “national interest”, but BEST chairman Stuart Hayward called for a list of criteria by which national interest should be gauged.

“It is an unhealthy state of affairs when, as in this case, national interest appears arbitrary and somewhat capricious,” Mr Hayward said.

Sardis Development Ltd had sought permission to erect ten residential units, a sewage treatment facility and parking spaces on agriculture reserve land on the Smith’s property, stating the residential units were intended to “support the viability” of its $51.4 million hotel project on the Pink Beach site.

The application led to renewed criticism from BEST and neighbours, who had previously expressed concerns about the developers subdividing the tourism-zoned property to create a 5.5 acre residential lot, preventing public access to the largest of the property’s two beaches.

The Development Applications Board rejected the application, citing the agricultural zoning, but Dr Gibbons upheld an approval.

In his decision, he noted the concerns of BEST and neighbours, but said that there were “additional factors of national importance”, such as efforts to rebuild the Island’s tourism industry.

Responding to the decision, Mr Hayward said: “BEST feels strongly that the term ‘national interest’ is becoming overused, and is often empty of any real meaning beyond what is convenient at the time.

“The minister missed a ready opportunity to look out for Bermuda’s national interest when he permitted the new owners of the Pink Beach property to remove tourism-zoned property, including Bermuda’s iconic Pink Beach, from Bermuda’s stock of publicly accessible beaches.

“The plan is for this extraordinary beach to be used only by the new owners for their personal use and for their private guests. Not even the hotel guests will be able to trespass on to the owner’s newly carved-off 5.5 acres to enjoy the beach. It has been transformed from a tourist amenity to a private enclave.”

He said the blow to national interest was compounded by the loss of the agricultural reserve land, despite the developer’s early promise to rehabilitate the farm land.

“It might have been different if the development now slated for the agricultural land was on a plot whose original boundaries limited its revenue potential,” Mr Hayward added.

“But in this case the limits were self-imposed by the owner who himself drew the boundaries when carving off the private 5.5 acres.”