expected to escalate at a meeting on Monday of the objections tribunal for the 1992 Bermuda Plan.

US-owned Bermuda Properties is calling for a rollback of development restrictions to allow for a condominium development on Catchment Hill. They are backed by the Planning Department.

But the National Trust and the Mid Ocean Club are calling for stronger restrictions to be placed on the 38-acre site. They say the land was never intended for residential redevelopment.

Bermuda Properties plans to build condominiums if the site is zoned residential.

It is the largest privately owned property on the Island and includes Castle Harbour Golf Course.

President of the company Mr. Edward Trippe and director Mr. Charles Trippe are related to original owner Mr. Juan Trippe, who founded Pan American Airways.

Six of the company's 11 directors are American and the vast majority of its shares are in US ownership.

Catchment Hill contains two large whitewashed, water catchments on top of the hill, several disused quarries, a heavily wooded hillside and three houses.

The draft Bermuda Plan zoned the water catches and the homes as residential but placed "woodland reserve'' and "open space'' zoning on the hillside. A west-facing slope was designated "nature reserve''.

Bermuda Properties objected to the restrictive conservation zonings, stating that 50 percent, or 13 acres, of the area designated for development under the 1983 plan was zoned open space under the 1992 Bermuda Plan.

Both the Mid Ocean Club and the Bermuda National Trust want the catchment area to be made green or open space and are calling for part of the woodland to be upgraded to woodland reserve to tighten the restrictions.

"The entire Catchment Hill should be protected for its environmental and amenity value and as an important open space.'' Planning officers, however, have agreed with the landowners, stating: "An analysis of the conditions on site revealed that certain areas, particularly those in and around the quarries, did not warrant the conservation zoning.

"The Department maintains that Catchment Hill is suitable for some form of residential development.

"The extensive catchments dominate the hilltop and cannot possibly be regarded as having any scenic or amenity value as suggested by the objectors.

"On the contrary, a well-designed, landscaped housing scheme which respects and maintains the surrounding wooded slopes would be an improvement in the existing state of affairs.'' The zoning will be considered by the objections tribunal at Cabinet building on Monday morning. A decision will be made in the spring.

A final site visit was made yesterday by some of the objectors and representatives of the Planning department.

Bermuda Properties director Mr. Peter Parker told a photographer from The Royal Gazette that he could not take pictures on the property yesterday, because he did "not trust the paper''.

Mr. Parker was giving a tour of Catchment Hill to tribunal member Mr. Elroy Ratteray, Miss Toby Butterfield from the National Trust, Mr. Ford Hutchings of the Mid Ocean Club and Miss Tanya Stafford, secretary of the tribunal.

Other tribunal members and interested parties toured the site earlier in the month.