Filling in parts of Hamilton Harbour to create extra land mass for an ambitious $639 million re-designed waterfront may need to be scaled back from what has been proposed in initial concept drawings.

And Mayor Lawson Mapp has revealed the building of a long-talked about small business class hotel at the Par-La-Ville Road car park site may be the first new venture to see the light of day ? possibly within the next year ? although it is not strictly part of the new waterfront vision.

The waterfront scheme has generated a lot of feedback, said the Mayor, particularly regarding the idea of creating extra land area by filling in part of the harbour along the current waterfront and constructing fingers of land jutting out part way into the harbour on which to build a hotel, luxury homes, offices and yacht marina.

It?s early days and feedback from the public and businesses is making its way to the desk of Mr. Mapp who is taking a look at the suggestions and concerns made so far.

On the one hand he remains bullish, telling : ?We have not decided to cut it back. We are getting input and we will see if the consensus is that we should scale it back or not.?

But he added: ?There is concern the landfill is going too far and we may have to scale that back.

?We are going through the process, we have people writing to the editor and sending forms to us and we have had comments from Mr. (Andrew) Trimmingham and Sir John (Swan). We?ve had several letters and this is all part of the process.?

The bold idea to transform Hamilton?s waterfront with parks, hotels and luxury apartments, a yacht marina and underground parking was presented to the public by the Corporation of Hamilton on March 21 at a packed meeting.

Mr. Mapp stressed the scheme, which proposes creating extra land mass in the harbour to build upon and also seeks the removal of the cargo docks from the eastern end of the Front Street waterfront, was not a blueprint but merely a starting point for discussion and proposals.

The Corporation is in talks with the Bermuda National Trust and environmentalists particularly regarding the impact of changes to the harbour. Mr. Mapp said: ?We want to talk to everybody that is involved.?

Despite the high cost for the project, the Mayor is confident the money is available through a combination of the Corporation, Government and the private sector.

He said: ?There are people who have come to me and said it is financially conceivable.?