A decision by the Development Applications Board to reject plans for modular housing at Boaz Island has been overturned by the Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation.

In a June 5 letter to the Bermuda Housing Corporation, Diallo Rabain said he decided to uphold an appeal made by the Ministry of Housing and Municipalities and to grant planning permission for the project for a “strictly limited” period of four years.

Mr Rabain said he was granting permission for the project to go ahead subject to the enforcement of several technical frameworks.

They include a stipulation that the “project is approved strictly as a temporary, controlled pilot initiative to evaluate alternative construction speeds and fiscal performance during a national housing emergency”.

In alignment with the BHC’s written confirmation, Mr Rabain said the permission will automatically expire four years from the date of the issuance of the Certificate of Completion and Occupancy, “at which point the units must be removed and the site restored, unless a formal renewal is granted based on proven operational compatibility”.

In his reasons for greenlighting the project, Mr Rabain said his statutory duty required him to assess the proposal against the provisions of the Bermuda Plan 2018 as a whole, balancing the urgent national mandate for transitional shelter with the vital planning protections owed to local communities.

He said he carefully assessed the initial technical refusal, the formal letters of objection from Boaz Island residents as well as the BHC’s subsequent supplemental submissions dated May 26.

A planning application for the project was rejected by the DAB, which found that the proposal went against policies in the Bermuda Plan 2018.

Zane DeSilva, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Housing and Municipalities, had vowed to appeal the decision.

The BHC launched an appeal in April, arguing that the project should be allowed given the “real and growing” housing crisis.

However, a letter from residents, added to the online planning file on May 1, urged Mr Rabain to uphold the DAB’s decision, noting that Boaz Island was one of the most densely populated parts of Bermuda.

The residents argued that introducing a high-density emergency housing development into the area could compound issues faced by residents.

They also noted the number of visitors who travel through Boaz Island on their way to and from Dockyard, stating that departing from the “Bermuda image” in such a visible area would mar the tourism experience.

Concerns were also raised that the “pilot” would set a precedent, encouraging private use of low-cost housing that does not align with Bermuda’s planning principles.

Mr Rabain acknowledged the residents’ concerns in the approval letter to the BHC.

He said: “The objections raised by local residents are valid, deeply understood and respected.

“Communities have an absolute right to expect that any development introduced into their neighbourhoods is structurally resilient, environmentally sanitary and protective of their privacy.

“It is the ministry's role to ensure that innovation is never weaponised at the expense of the community's standard of living.”

However, he said, the evidence now before him demonstrated “that the initial areas of friction have been systematically resolved through robust, data-driven engineering and operational compromises”.

Mr Rabain said he was granting permission for the project to go ahead subject to the enforcement of nine technical frameworks.

They include a condition that the BHC apply “traditional Bermuda accent colours” to the exterior entrance doors and structural steel base plates of the capsule units before deployment.

The minister said this would establish “an intentional visual connection to Bermuda's architectural heritage”.

While he acknowledged the neighbourhood's anxiety regarding local density, Mr Rabain said objective planning metrics demonstrate that the proposal complies fully with the statutory boundaries established by Parliament.

Another framework centres on guarantees on public safety and hurricane resilience.

Mr Rabain said certified engineering calculations from Brunel Ltd demonstrate that the steel-framed capsule enclosures are structurally rated to withstand extreme hurricane wind speeds of 150mph under the American Society of Civil Engineers design parameters.

He said a local resident raised an objection expressing concern that the development poses environmental and waste-management risks.

The resident argued that a hydrogeological survey should be mandatory to ensure that the volume of wastewater effluent would not affect the local water table or overall environmental health.

“While I understand the resident's caution regarding wastewater management, technical reviews conducted by statutory authorities confirm that these environmental risks have been fully mitigated,” Mr Rabain said.