Plans for a sports complex, retirement village, care home and shopping development between two Aberdeen communities will not significantly effect the environment, according to a new report.
The proposed scheme at the 24-acre site, south of North Deeside Road and bordering Cults and Garthdee, was unveiled by the Cults Property Development Company earlier this year.
Also included in the project are plans for a new road through the complex and over the old railway line path – which the firm says will come at no cost to the taxpayer if approved – connecting North Deeside Road to Inchgarth Road.
But concerns have been raised in both Cults and Garthdee communities about the proposed development’s impact on the environment, landscape, and traffic in the area.
However, a report created for Cults Property Development Company Ltd by law firm Burness Paull suggests the project “will not have a significant effect on the environment.”
The report also claimed the plans do not require Aberdeen City Council to carry out a full environmental impact assessment (EIA).
It stated: “The main potential impacts are: loss of greenbelt and greenspace network land; landscape and visual impacts; and traffic impacts.
“In terms of the loss of greenbelt and greenspace network land, it is submitted that the small scale of the proposed development will mean it has a negligible impact on the greenbelt and greenspace network as a whole.
“In terms of landscape and visual considerations, the site can be seen as an integral part of a wider residential and mixed use area, as part of which the site is considered to have scope to provide a high quality residential and leisure development.
“The development is not anticipated to generate large volumes of traffic in general or at peak times, and the provision of the relief road will ensure that existing residential streets, such as St Devenick’s Place, Pitfodels Station Road and Westerton Road,
will no longer be used for rat-running.
“For the reasons set out above, it is submitted that the proposed development will not have a significant effect on the environment.”
Cults Property Development Company Ltd hopes to make an application for planning permission in principle next month.
