proposal for Catchment Hill be refused.

Planning Director Mr. Brian Rowlinson said the recommendation went to the Development Applications Board yesterday. A decision had not been made public by last night.

Bermuda Properties Ltd., which owns the Tucker's Town site, has proposed luxury condominiums on the land.

But Mr. Rowlinson said the proposal was not put forward because the company wished to build "in the foreseeable future'', but because Bermuda Properties wanted to establish development rights on the land.

Bermuda Properties head Mr. Peter Parker declined to comment.

Meanwhile, a review of Catchment Hill's zoning that was ordered by Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons last October, was still under way, Mr.

Rowlinson said. National Trust environmental committee chairman Mr. Tim Marshall said he agreed with the Planning Department recommendation to reject the Bermuda Properties application.

His organisation believed it would be premature for the development to proceed in light of Government's promise to the Bermuda people that the zoning of Catchment Hill would be looked at again.

"The overwhelming result of the Department of Planning's own survey was that the public did not want to see if developed,'' he said.

"Having said that, it has to be recognised that it is the right of the developers to press on with any development. But it is our hope that Catchment Hill will be preserved in its natural state for all time.'' Catchment Hill is a 38-acre site near Harrington Sound Post Office, of which 14 acres is a concrete water catchment surrounded by wooded hillside and a quarry.

It became the battleground between environmentalists who want it to remain an open space -- it is one of Bermuda's last forests -- and developers.

Controversy erupted over the open parcel of wooded land when the Bermuda Plan appeals tribunal rezoned the area for development despite Trust protests.

Government is still reviewing this part of the plan because the House of Assembly passed the 1992 Bermuda Plan last year.

And a promised review of the plan's proposed zoning of Catchment Hill was key to its passage.

Planning Department questionnaires showed "strong support'' for protecting the site as open space. Close to 87 percent of the more than 500 questionnaires returned, favoured an open space zoning.

Additionally, a 4,000-name petition opposing Catchment Hill development was also presented to Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons last summer.