Councillors have put plans for 20 new homes at St Fergus on hold until they can visit the site for themselves.
ARD Properties want to build the properties in Newton Road, but local residents have raised serious concerns about flooding.
And planning officers have recommended the scheme for refusal due to a “disappointing” design – despite the developer already scaling back from 23 to 20 homes.
Yesterday, councillors deferred making a decision on the project for a site visit.
Planning officer Sally Wood listed reasons why refusal was recommended, starting with the development’s hipped designs being “disappointing”.
She suggested the development would impact neighbours’ amenity due to overshadowing, and that the roads layout was not ideal as visibility at the junction had not been shown. She also noted surface water drainage was an issue and that there was no evidence it would not “exacerbate the risk of flooding”.
She added: “We’re aware of the devastation that flooding could cause and we can’t assure that wouldn’t happen.”
Before the meeting, 18 objection letters and a petition with 25 signatures, along with pictures of the area submerged in water, were submitted in opposition to the development.
Neighbour Stephen Baird was disappointed a masterplan had not been made as the site in full permits 55 houses, but officers told him with only 20 it was not a set requirement.
He added: “Policies are there to protect the communities where we live and keep Aberdeenshire a good place to live so how can you approve this if it doesn’t comply?”
Another resident Stephen OBrien asked councillors: “If this was looking into your property would you find it acceptable?”
Harry Chalmers also spoke on behalf of his family who developed nearby Hazel’s Walk and have put resources into drainage after seeing an increase in water over the last 10 years.
Ryan Urquhart, agent from Baxter Design Company, addressed all of the concerns and defended the house designs as being “in demand on the market” in the area.
He added: “We’re looking at options such as moving windows to tackle overshadowing but the site is on a steep slope and that has been included in the design.
“We’ve also done flooding and drainage studies that show we would reduce the surface water and increase the run off rates too.”
Following a motion from Alan Fakley, councillors agreed to go on a site visit.
