NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Paradise Island hotels opposing a proposed Wendy's and Marco's Pizza fast food development on the island say they still have 'serious' concerns about the potential for increased traffic and have hired a firm to conduct a traffic study.
Glenn Haddad, Executive Vice-President of the Paradise Island Tourism Development Association (PITDA) said in a Letter to the Editor dated October 18 that following Monday night's public hearing over the proposed development, the association still has serious concerns about the increased traffic the restaurants could cause and how this would affect PITDA's member hotels and partners which include Atlantis Paradise Island, Bay View Suites Paradise Island, Comfort Suites Paradise Island, Paradise Island Beach Club, The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, Paradise Landing, and Ocean Club Estates.
"Despite the claims from the developer that his restaurants would not cause any additional traffic issues, he did not provide the Town Planning Committee or the public with any documents or studies in support of that claim," said Haddad.
"Given our direct long-standing experience of maintaining all the roads, traffic lights, directional signage, other infrastructure, and traffic security across Paradise Island, PITDA strongly believes that this development will indeed have a very negative traffic impact on the visitors, residents, and employees of Paradise Island. Due to this major concern, PITDA has retained traffic experts, Caribbean Civil Group Limited, to immediately conduct a traffic impact study around these proposed fast-food restaurants on Paradise Island."
Haddad noted that due to the fact that this detailed study will take a minimum of three weeks to complete and another week to publish the results, the PITDA is separately going through the appropriate channels and making an official request that the Town Planning Committee provide a four-week delay on their decision.
"We think this is a reasonable request, as the study will, for the first time, provide actual evidence on traffic impact - not speculation - and must therefore be a key factor in any fair and equitable decision on the part of the committee. We believe we owe it to the people who live, work, and play on our beautiful island to get to the truth about whether this proposed development will cause increased traffic congestion, thereby affecting people's quality of life and the ease of doing business on Paradise Island," he added.
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