Hill in Hamilton Parish may be about to end.

Government has had a compulsory purchase order for several years on the three-acre property which has a derelict, old Bermuda home on it. But it has failed to reach an agreement with owner Mr. Russell Dismont on a sale price.

A Works and Engineering tribunal two years ago suggested a sale price of $400,000 because it thought the property had no development potential as it is restrictively zoned.

However, the tribunal members were proved wrong this week when Mr. Dismont was granted in-principle approval from the Development Applications Board to make additions and renovations to create a single dwelling unit and put a pool on the property.

Mr. Dismont's lawyer Mr. Richard Hector said yesterday Government may now make a "more realistic'' offer considering the property does have development potential.

He added his client realises he must sell the property to Government and was not seriously planning to build a single apartment and put in a pool.

Mr. Dismont, who is retired, bought the property for $325,000 in 1984 with the intention of refurbishing the derelict house and living there with his family.

But the Environment Ministry slapped him with a compulsory purchase order a few years later because it felt the property was of great environmental importance.

However, that order was found to be unconstitutional by the Works and Engineering tribunal shortly after it suggested the $400,000 sale price.

Still determined to acquire the property, Environment Ministry officials sought to have the Acquisition of Land Act 1920 amended so the order would not be unconstitutional -- and were successful.

The dispute is now before a second tribunal which was empanelled earlier this year and has been holding hearings to determine an appropriate price for the land.

"It is a key piece of property which is connected to one of the few remaining pieces of prehistoric Bermuda -- the Walsingham property,'' permanent secretary for the Environment Ministry Mr. James Burnett-Herkes said yesterday.

And he said the property, on the left as you come off the Causeway, is one of the first things tourists see when they arrive in Bermuda and should remain undeveloped and scenic.

The property, which has access to the water, is zoned woodland reserve, a coastal conservation area, nature reserve, arable land and open space. Most of the house is in the part of the property zoned open space.

The DAB does not usually give permission to develop on land zoned open space, but uses its discretion in such cases.

Mr. Burnett-Herkes said the DAB, which does not include any Government employees, may have approved Mr. Dismont's application because there was already a building in existence.