Multimillionaire James Martin's Agar's Island mansion is safe from the bulldozers - for the time being anyway - although a stop work order remains in place.

Mr. Martin submitted an application to the Planning Department this week for retroactive approval to add to the atrium at the main building's front entrance and to extend the balcony.

The computer guru's housing development was served with a "stop work" notice in March after a Planning inspection found over a dozen infractions on the site where building had allegedly gone ahead without permission, or, contrary to submitted plans.

The multi-million dollar complex is to include a huge home, restoration of a cottage, renovation of a store room, a gazebo, a tea room and ponds of fresh and salt water.

By far the most controversial aspect of the project however is the main building's dramatic front atrium, Planning Director Rudolph Hollis told The Royal Gazette yesterday. The atrium was originally approved to a height of 27 feet, but currently measures 44 feet and ten inches. Now the builders hope to receive retroactive approval in order to keep the structure in place as it exists.

Mr. Hollis said that several applications for retroactive approval to Mr. Martin's home had already been submitted for smaller, less controversial aspects such as adding benches, a pergola and low-standing walls. Mr. Hollis said these are minor changes, unlikely to become a sticking point for Planning as opposed to the towering atrium.

However, Mr. Hollis said even if the department recommends rejecting Mr. Martin's atrium application and that recommendation is upheld by the Development Applications Board (DAB), there would still be many legal avenues open for Mr. Martin to challenge the decision.

And Mr. Hollis said no enforcement action would be taken against the property before all these channels were exhausted.

If the DAB rejects the plans for Agar's Island, an appeal can be submitted to the Minister of the Environment - Terry Lister - within 21 days.

And should Mr. Lister dismiss the appeal, his decision could still be challenged in Supreme Court before any enforcement action would be granted to Planning, said Mr. Hollis.

The process could take a considerable amount of time, he said. Alternatively, should the Department recommend that the retroactive approvals be granted, the stop work order will be removed very quickly, he added.