fun

I realize this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but today (note - this was written on the 5th) - a day of geeky, bureaucrat-filled policy and procedure meetings - was, to me, fun.

From 10 til noon, development control staff met to discuss questions and issues that had been generated during the review of cases. Jim was generous and brought various cans of nuts and fresh grapes, and the mood was helpful, which is not always how I would characterize these sessions. The more senior staff, other than Director (also from away, Barbados) and Senior (Canadian) are American, tho Cory is here permanently, married to a Bermudian. We've also been here the least time, so the 'local' staff provides the history and context for discussions - incredibly valuable, and not least for making sure we stay aware of Bermudian expectations and touchy points.

Felt like there was more discussion and acceptance of divergent viewpoints than I've seen as the case. Also, we updated the rest of staff on some major cases currently in process, and on topics like the rapidly-developing renewable energy policies, and fire-fighting service provision, and let everyone know of meetings on these topics with invitations to participate. I got the sense that this is not typically done. Does seem to me that one develops the perspective and competencies expected of more senior staff by having interested souls from the 'training' levels participate in the discussions, etal. I was pleased to find that nearly everyone showed up for the 2 pm meeting Jim and I set with the Fire Service, and got very involved in the discussion and debate, and I would have had more people with me at the 3 pm Ministry of Energy solar energy application meeting if the Fire discussion had wound down by then. As it was, one of the more junior staff decided he was interested enough to duck out with me.

The meeting with Fire Service was an effort to push for resolution on a basic conflict that is about to become a much larger thing. Many, many roads in Bermuda are a) private estate roads and essentially driveways with a sort of private right of way, b) 8 to 12' wide and otherwise not such that firetrucks, ambulances, etc can get to calls on these roads. There is no mechanism to widen the roads - and again, most of them are easements across private land. There are easily hundreds of lots accessed by roads that are inadequate for any level of service delivery. Even with the latest Plan, roadwidth is set at 14' to 16' - this is the entire road, mind you, not lane width.

Fire Service says they can't provide fire protection, because their equipment now requires at least a 12' wide by 15' high clear corridor to a site. Since something like 70% of the lots in Bermuda are either themselves on skinnier roadways, or are reached by skinnier roadways, often edged by stone walls and structures, this is clearly an issue.

I don't know, myself, if smaller (i.e. narrower) trucks cannot be bought; all the utilities, the water delivery companies, etc, have narrower trucks, but they are not as long, of course. Fire Service says the smaller trucks they used to have were more dangerous - people hung on at various platforms on the outside of the truck, rather than in a crew cab, and that was more hazardous for the fire fighters.

Of course, there may be some sort of empire building/territoriality thing going on. Fire Services often have a big dose of political 'conveying of weight' involved, and I've certainly been told there is a big slug of that with this one.

Now - the question has been bumped upstairs - per the Plan, the Board cannot approve projects if there is not emergency response accessibility. Again, 70% or so of the properties in Bermuda are in this situation. Do you tell people they can't develop on legal lots of record, or can develop only if they are willing to forgo fire and ambulance protection? If the Fire Service is unwilling to recognize or organize any other sort of firefighting response, where does that leave people? Do we let folks develop (i.e. refuse the applications, have them go on appeal to the Minister and very likely be approved there, thereby undercutting the Plan and enlarging the problem since Fire still can't get to those units just because they've been ok'd by the Minister) knowing there is no fire and rescue response capability as things stand? Does someone in authority in the government declare 'whoa nellie - go get yourself some equipment that works for the reality in Bermuda?' (which the fire chief says would also mean he needs to double his workforce to operate smaller trucks...)

Probably 80% of my cases are hanging fire right now until the hoo-has get this worked out.
For the staff this was apparently a rather exciting event to be part of; a lot of light bulbs going off, a lot of suggestions and chatter.

The meeting with the Department of Energy was also interesting. There are programs abaout to be announced for incentives and rebates for installing solar photovoltaic and hot water systems, and Energy is chomping at the bit to get them out there. However, the legal and interpretive underpinnings aren't in place yet - you still have to get a construction permit AND license to operate a controlled plant for every solar panel installation, if you are doing it legitimately. The applications have no expedited process (the present process probably averages 6 months), there is no information on what particular data is needed to get drawings and applications to the point where they can be dealt with quickly, and everything above 80 sf of photovoltaics, or above 4' off the ground or 10" above a roof requires Board review and approval. So the point was to pull all the info together, design a process that keeps this from being an invent-the-wheel process with each application, develop information for interested applicants and generally get everything in line to be supportive of thisi push.

This literally requires an act of congress - or parliament, as the nomenclature is here. The requirements and limitations are set out in relatively aantique Acts that badly need amendment - or, I suppose, someone to take authority , in writing, for saying the Act may say that but we aren't going to enforce that part of the Act.

I hear from the private side that 'everyone' is on board with doing this and from the technical review side (those charged with the review responsibilities) that that is news to them. Hey, guys, it is your country, decide what you want and how you want it, provide for a way of doing it legally, and we are rarin' to go...

Enough on this...I have some pictures I want to add!