Residents will have their say on two major applications for an Aberdeenshire town next week – both of which are proposing supermarkets.
Plans for a housing development at Mill of Forest, Stonehaven, will be brought before the public at Mackie Academy next Wednesday, ahead of a decision to approve or reject them by Aberdeenshire Council.
On the same evening, proposals by the FM Group for a 50-bedroom hotel, restaurant and supermarket on the Ury Estate will be discussed.
The developer is also behind a scheme for an £80million Jack Nicklaus golf resort on the historic grounds.
The pre-determination meeting will offer local councillors the opportunity to hear arguments for and against a development before the plans proceed to the Kincardine and Mearns area committee and a meeting of the full council.
Neither site is allocated within the 2012 or 2016 Aberdeenshire local development plans (LDPs).
The Mill of Forest project includes a business park, a large supermarket and a new bridge across the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road.
Drum Property Group and Barratt North Scotland are behind the plans, which would include 125 affordable homes.
The site would be accessed from a new roundabout on the loop road linking the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road with the A92 Stonehaven to Montrose route.
Local councillors rejected a 1,500-home development at the Mill of Forest in 2014. And residents have raised concerns over issues such as road safety, visual impact and the effect on Stonehaven’s schools – with 30 objections to date and four letters of support.
In report on the plans being compiled for the pre-determination meeting, the council explained its position.
It said: “Consideration is required as to whether the development would have any impact on visitors to Stonehaven, either through impact on its setting or general impact on amenity of the town centre and detrimental impact this could have on tourism.”
The initial Ury Estate planning application was refused after being debated at a meeting of Aberdeenshire Council in November 2014.
The council’s economic development team, part of its infrastructure services department, is also seeking clarity about the development’s impact on the “vitality and viability of the town centre”.
The meeting will take place at 6.30pm.