Housing Minister David Burch yesterday delivered a blunt message to Loughlands protesters ? ?Get over it?.

And he warned the rest of Bermuda that more housing projects were in the pipeline at sites across the Island, and some residents would have to get used to having new neighbours.

His comments came after more than 200 frustrated Paget residents said they felt ?totally ignored? by Government because they never saw plans for the South Road site.

They spoke out after the Loughlands developer was given a Special Development Order (SDO) to build 96 ?affordable? condos on the site of a former guest house, without a planning application getting filed.

The Opposition last night repeated claims that Government had ?rammed through? the development without any consultation. And they said it appeared this was the first time a major development had been given the green light without a planning application.

Asked what his message was to protestors unhappy with the process and that no plans were made public, Senator Burch replied: ?Get over it. Everyone in this country does not want it (new development) in their backyard. ?What I say to the rest of this country is get ready, because you are getting neighbours soon. We have projects all over the country. Paget residents are going to have a lot of company soon.?

He said that Loughlands, and other new housing projects, were ?housing our fellow Bermudians, not people from Mars?. Concerns have been raised by the Bermuda National Trust about Government?s increasing use of SDOs.

However, the Minister said that they were designed to speed up the planning process in the public interest. The Environment Ministry has already said that the Loughlands SDO was granted because affordable housing was a matter of national importance.

Sen. Burch said Loughlands needed a SDO because it had been zoned for tourism and needed to be switched to residential housing.

He said he indicated that a SDO would be needed when the Paget plans were first unveiled earlier this year, and expressed surprise that people were angry about the development getting fast-tracked.

He said that the Opposition was ?coming up with all sorts of reasons why they object?, and said he got the impression that the UBP felt that all 96 new residents ?are going to be black and vote PLP?.

Some 500 people who want to live at Loughlands have put their names forward and the Minister, who described it as a ?brilliant example of a public-private partnership, said: ?We are talking about addressing the middle class in this particular project.

?We are talking about young Bermudian professionals who are locked out of the housing market in this country.

?I have said repeatedly, if you provide one house for one family you help more than one family, because they will probably move out of rental accommodation.?

Sen. Burch added: ?A hotel chambermaid is not going to be able to afford $450,000 to buy a two-bed condo at Loughlands, although we have to address that segment of the community as well.?

He said there were a ?number of projects on the burner? and said Government was addressing the housing crisis in a ?methodical, thought-out way?.

Voters can decide at the next election, said the Minister, on whether Government had delivered on housing.

Paget East MP Grant Gibbons said the Housing Minister was not listening to the community. He added: ?This is not an issue about affordable housing ? everyone agrees we need it, and the concerned residents of Paget have made that point clearly.

?But all of us are justifiably alarmed about a Government that issues a SDO without any planning documents in order to bypass the normal planning process and ram through developments without any consultation or disclosure.

?It?s simply wrong ? and it violates natural justice.?

Dr. Gibbons said that Government?s failure to provide affordable housing over the past seven years did not justify suddenly ?riding roughshod? over the community and ?violating the spirit? and intent of planning laws.

?With the development at Loughlands, Government has proceeded with a SDO without requiring the developer to file a planning application. This appears to be the first time this has happened since Parliament established planning regulations in the 1974 Act, and it sets a dangerous precedent.

?It means that there is no disclosure: no one ? not the Development Applications Board, not the public, not community organisations, not MPs ? knows exactly what will be built at Loughlands.?

Meanwhile, Opposition Deputy Leader Michael Dunkley yesterday warned of extra traffic delays linked to the development.

He added: ?The decisions to build 96 condos at Loughlands combined with 39 across the street at Cataract Hill - and possibly two dozen more at the Coco Reef hotel site ? threatens to create a permanent traffic jam above the Paget lights that will impair the workability of the Island for thousands of people every day.?

The Works Ministry announced in March that it had struck a deal to buy condos from developer Gilbert Lopes to sell to first-time buyers for between $450,000 and $500,000.

A total of 68 two-bedroom and 28 three-bedroom units will surround the old guest house.