Bermuda?s runaway development is costing the Island its traditional character and turning it into ?another Hong Kong?, a meeting on sustainable development heard this week.

And many in the 50-strong audience at Whitney Institute on Tuesday night said they were opposed to plans to widen Town Cut in St. George?s and Two Rock Passage in Hamilton Harbour to accommodate the latest mega-cruise ships.

The meeting was held by the sustainable development project team, set up by Government earlier this year to write a sustainable development plan for Bermuda.

Audience members expressed concerns about foreigners holding land in Bermuda and highlighted the need for a moratorium on certain types of new construction except for small business renovations and community developments

One man warned: ?We are moving forward as such a rapid pace, it?s hard to stop a runaway train. Do you want to live in Hong Kong??

Another man said: ?Stop kidding yourselves, Hong Kong is here already. If you don?t believe it , wait until the buildings finish going up in west Hamilton.?

Other people at the meeting raised the issues of immigration, crime, affordable housing, the cost of medical coverage for seniors, and the erosion of the Island?s coral reefs.

People frequently voiced misgivings about the potential impact of mega-cruise ships, expanding the Town Cut and the increasing impact of noise and traffic congestion.

One woman said: ?What are we thinking about in taking out Two Rock Passage and taking out the Town Cut to bring in even bigger cruise ships? To me we are eroding our character and we are doing this for the dollar.?

She added: ?Enough is enough, people will not want to come here because it?s too crowded on Front Street, there will be umbrellas from one end to the next. We will have lost our uniqueness, what makes us special.?

One person raised the throwaway nature of Bermudians, saying they were quick to dispose of anything without thinking about where it could be recycled.

One man said: ?I saw a truck taking a mint condition Mitsubishi station wagon to the airport dump. We are such a throwaway society that we throw away everything including people.?

He added: ?I was in Russia recently and saw the recycling process in St. Petersburg. It bothered me that we are so sophisticated, so educated and so far advanced and yet there are places like St. Petersburg that have made note of recycling.?

One woman expressed similar sentiments: ?The onus is on Bermudians to decide if we are going to live a simpler life or want everything. We are generating this overheated economy because we don?t want to live simply anymore.?

She said the wealth the Island had attained had turned Bermuda into a throwaway society and Bermudians should not rely on materialism to create a sense of identity.

Some people said people were throwing batteries in the garbage and called for a report on how much paper and plastic was needed to run the Tynes Bay Incinerator and how much the Island could recycle.

One woman said old computers, printers and cell-phones needed to be disposed of in a better way and suggested a partnership could be developed with recycling companies in the East Coast of the US to recycle plastic and paper.

Ross Andrews, the Project Team Leader, said sustainable development was about managing the future of Bermuda ?without selling off the family silver?.

?Development is happening all the time, the question is how to make it sustainable. It?s about managing the future, it?s about playing chess with the future rather than roulette with the future,? Mr. Andrews said.

Long-term planning and the legacy we wanted to leave our children were also questions that must be addressed, Mr. Andrews added.

?How do we meet our needs today without selling off the family silver so that our children don?t really have a future?? Mr. Andrews asked.

A holistic approach must be taken to acknowledge that future development patterns in Bermuda are going to be affected by its economy, society and its environment, the three pillars of sustainable development, Mr. Andrews said.

Mr. Andrews thanked the audience for their participation and announced that ZBM will be holding a roundtable discussion on sustainable development on June 21 at 8 p.m.