Residents have spoken out about plans to build 500 new homes in their neighbourhood – the vast majority of them to be filled by students.
Plans have been lodged to demolish the BT Engineering Centre on Froghall Road and build new residential accommodation in its place.
Neighbours of the site attended a pre-application forum yesterday at the Town House to learn more about the proposals, which have been put forward by BT and Telereal Trillium.
Conor Pittman, senior associate at Allan Murray Architects, said: “There would be a student accommodation to the north a car park and green space in the centre and a residential accommodation in the south.
“There would be no parking for students, only spaces for loading and staff members.
“The number of beds has been reduced from the original plans from 425 to 400 for students and 100 to 80 for residents.”
Development manager at Telereal Trillium Nigel Reid added: “This site is underutilised by BT and they are in need new premises which will probably be on the outskirts of the city.”
It is proposed that 25% of the new housing will be affordable.
After the meeting, residents raised doubts about the size of the accommodation proposed as well as its impact on the sewage system and parking arrangements.
Anna Rait, 35, who lives on Sunnybank Road, said: “I don’t want to live on a student campus.
“As well as this it will ruin the view, when I Iook out of my window now I can see trees but not it will be completely blocked by this.”
She added: “There is also no parking for the students and there will be around 500 of them.
“We have our own car park but it is not gated so they will clearly take it up as the parking on the roads where we live is not free.”
Another nearby resident, who did not want to be named, said:
“In July the flooding caused manholes to be lifted on Froghall Road and I’ve never know that happen before.”
“It’s because of the new housing and it’s only going to get worse with this.”