These new images show how an Aberdeenshire quarry could be transformed into a 1,500-home community a stone’s throw from the River Dee.
There was a mixed reaction from locals to the plans for the eco-friendly Kincluny Village – at the south end of Drumoak – in the village’s church hall last night.
Chap Group has developed the plans for Park Quarry, just south of the River Dee, which would totally revamp the brownfield site.
The plans – which have been four years in the making – include about 500 affordable homes, a business park, a community loch, a new school and other community facilities.
There are also proposals for a sports hall, a library, a community centre and a sports centre.
However, some locals are worried about the pressure the plans could place on local amenities.
Currently Drumoak is served by one shop and a post office and work is ongoing to build a new 145-pupil primary to replace the currently over-capacity school.
The village’s only bar and restaurant, the Irvine Arms, closed its doors earlier this year.
The Kincluny Development Trust is considering powering the entire development using renewable energy.
Joint managing director of Chap Group, Hugh Craigie, said yesterday’s public consultation had been a huge success.
Fellow joint managing director of the firm, Douglas Thomson, said: “We firmly believe that the Park Quarry site provides an ideal opportunity to regenerate a brownfield site in the heart of Deeside.
“It is very clear that there is growing and urgent demand for family houses, of all tenures, across Aberdeenshire.
“There are not many sites that provide such a unique and deliverable opportunity to address the current housing shortage as that provided at Park Quarry via the Kincluny Village proposals.”
After an initial public consultation in 2011, locals raised concerns that the development would have a significant impact on traffic at the bridge across the River Dee, north of the quarry.
Chap Group has said it will carry out a traffic impact assessment in the area.
Local councillor Graeme Clark said he was waiting until Chap Group brought the latest proposals before the Crathes, Drumoak and Durris Community Council before forming an opinion on them.
However, he said that when the plans were first announced in 2011, the local community had been “perturbed”.
He said: “I was there when Kincluny was first proposed by Chap in the first place and opinion locally was that nobody was in favour of it and it wasn’t in the local development plan.
“One big problem from 2011 was the transport because the South Deeside Road would really struggle with extra transport through cars on that road.”