Development Plan are expected to be resolved without a hearing.

In the dozens of objections settled so far, Planning officials either admitted a mistake had been made or agreed the property warranted a change of zoning.

Lists are being published in the Official Gazette this month of all zoning objections the Planning Department has asked the tribunal to accept.

The first two lists have been published in the Official Gazette over the last two Fridays.

The 1992 Bermuda Development Plan -- aimed at preserving any remaining open space on the Island -- was criticised for taking away the development rights of property owners.

A Planning Department official said it had been anticipated that around 60-65 percent of the 1,159 objections filed before the deadline would be settled without having to go before the Objections Tribunal, chaired by Mr. Jack Lightbourn.

He said the plan was drawn up mostly with the use of aerial photographs, and that often a site visit showed a completely different picture. An area that looked well-wooded in a photograph would turn out to be nothing more than scrubland and a few trees.

He added many of the objections the Tribunal was being asked to accept were subdivisions where planning approval had been given before the new plan was announced. "Any valid approval supersedes the plan,'' he explained.

Any objections that are not settled will go before the tribunal this summer.

The tribunal will also hear any counter-objections disagreeing with acceptance of an objection.

"It's a very democratic system which becomes very bureaucratic in the end,'' he said.

It would be a lengthy process to resolve all the objections, the planner said.

However, it was still anticipated the 1992 plan would be revised in time to go before Parliament by the end of the year.

Once the amendments are approved by the House of Assembly and the Senate, the plan will come into force.

The objections the Planning Department feels should be accepted without a hearing will be presented to the Tribunal at the Cabinet Building on May 8 at 8.30 a.m.