controversial expansion plan.

The Development Applications Board has given the Elbow Beach Hotel approval to build 66 new junior suites, a conference centre, ballroom and a parking lot for some 189 cars and 60 motorcycles on land designated for agriculture.

General manager Bill Shoaf yesterday said the hotel will shut down its main building on November 24 to begin construction.

"We are in the process of now putting all the plans into full swing,'' Mr.

Shoaf said. "We will be awarding a few contracts today.

"Our intention is to close the main building on November 24 until May 1. We will be operating with the cottages and Cafe Lido,'' he said. "We plan to redo all the rooms and we will tear down the columns in the front and put in a new entrance.'' A spokesperson for area residents who have opposed the plans yesterday told The Royal Gazette that the neighbours had to meet with their lawyer to plot their next move.

Residents of Cataract Hill, Paget, were worried that their peaceful access road, which runs off South Road, will become a noisy, congested throughway.

And they were not pleased about the hotel's bid to have some of the undeveloped land, now designated for tourism use, rezoned to residential.

According to plans submitted to the DAB, Elbow Beach wanted to have a woodland boundary pushed back from the hotel.

And the hotel's plans called for a service road to cut through the remaining woodland area, which contains mainly Casuarina trees, linking the hotel to the waste treatment facility.

The Paget hotel also planed to erect a waste treatment plant in an area designated woodland reserve.

The loudest objector to the waste treatment plant was Elbow Beach neighbour, Stonington Beach Hotel.

Development plans submitted to the DAB showed that the facility will be erected some 30 feet from the boundary separating the two hotels.

Some of Stonington's top hotel rooms are situated just 30 feet from the wooded boundary.

Objectors can appeal the DAB decision to the Minister of the Environment John Pearman.

Mr. Shoaf also said that the hotel did not plan to leave employees out in the cold during this winter's construction.

"We are keeping a large proportion employed,'' he said. "We will have 112 rooms open, so the room related staff should be all right.

"But the food and beverage staff will be affected since we are redoing the kitchens and the Seahorse Grill.'' Mr. Shoaf said employees, with some construction skills, will be given the chance to perform light duties with the builders to earn some funds this winter.

"We have had about 30 employees sign up to take part in this,'' he revealed.

And he said the hotel planned to do some employee training during the construction period.

"In the winter we plan to do some employee training and those involved will be on the payroll,'' he added. "It's going to be a busy winter.''