More than 130 people have been invited to have their say at a public hearing on plans for the former Aberdeen City Council headquarters.
Local authority officials contacted all of those who made representations on the planning application from Muse Developments for the old St Nicholas House.
But it emerged yesterday that those putting their views to councillors will only have five minutes to do so – only half the time that is normally granted.
The hearing to examine the £107million Marischal Square proposals will be held on August 28, but the following day has also been set aside if required.
Members of the planning development management committee are expected to a make a decision on the scheme at a meeting in September.
The deadline for those who want to speak at the hearing to register was reached yesterday.
Aberdeen City Centre Community Council is one of a number of organisations that will be involved.
Chairman Dustin Macdonald said: “We were told there were a lot of representations, so that was the reason for it being five minutes. I think if we had 10 minutes that would be good as it would help us get more of our points across.”
A council spokeswoman said: “The allotted times were agreed with the convener due to the high volume of people who could potentially request to speak at the hearing.
“In addition to those who could request to speak there will also be presentations from a number of council officers, the applicant and questions from members of the committee.”
Planning development management committee convener Ramsay Milne said he expected the hearing would be contained in one day.
The Muse plans will not be changed following the public hearing, but a new report will be prepared for consideration by councillors.
The proposal met the criteria for a hearing because of the council’s financial interest in the property and the large number of objections.
The application for a hotel, office and retail development was lodged after the developer entered into a deal for the land with the local authority.
The site will effectively be leased to Muse for 35 years, before it is returned to council control.
Meanwhile, deputy council leader Marie Boulton has said the public will be consulted on plans for an Aberdeen city centre “masterplan” by the end of the year.
Building Design Partnership (BDP) was selected in June from a shortlist of six bidding teams to carry out the study. A sum of £750,000 was set aside.
Mrs Boulton, who chairs the multi-agency city centre regeneration board, said the consultation responses will be fed into the blueprint for the future of the city, which is due to be completed in March next year.
Further details on dates and times for consultation events will be agreed next week, she added.
“It was part of the remit for BDP that there had to be a robust consultation process,” Mrs Boulton said.
The first stage will be to engage with communities, businesses, people from all walks of life, to ask them what they think the city centre lacks and what they think should happen.”
Mrs Boulton also said that work is progressing on plans to revamp Aberdeen Arts Centre and the Mither Kirk, with detailed business cases for each project currently being finalised.