Councillors in Inverness have been urged to give their backing to revised plans for a new 2,500-home suburb on the east of the city.
The ambitious Stratton scheme was brought back to life last month, and developer Hazledene Inverness hopes that work could get under way early next year.
The development is earmarked for almost 200 acres of land between the A96 Aberdeen road and the communities of Culloden and Smithton, with 400 homes to be built in the first phase.
A new town centre would also be created, as well as supermarkets, a primary school, health centre, park-and-ride facility and hotel.
A masterplan for the new town was originally approved by councillors in 2010, but the developer has “rejigged” the proposal and gone back to the local authority to request alterations to several conditions set-out in the original planning permission.
Highland Council’s south planning committee will consider the scheme on Tuesday, and has been urged to approve the plans by officials.
In a report to the meeting, Acting Principal Planner Simon Hindson concluded that “not all proposed modifications as sought by the applicant are acceptable” but that following talks it was considered that the revised conditions would be consistent with planning policies.
Local community councils had raised concerns that previous proposals to build a new primary school in the second or third phase of the 20-year development would not be acceptable because of over-capacity at existing schools.
But it is now proposed to build the school in the first phase, between this year and 2021, with the change in phasing said by the planners to be “considered appropriate”.
City centre organisation Inverness BID had also raised an objection to plans for new shops at the site, but the report to councillors said it was “appropriate to provide retail uses within a development of this scale” and that it was “unlikely to compete with the city centre”.
The planners refused to scrap a condition safeguarding land for the new East Link road, to connect the A96 Aberdeen route to the A9 Perth road and the A82 to Fort William, as well as commitments to upgrade Barn Church Road.
However, they agreed to reword those sections.
The developer has also provided reassurances over its commitment to building a 500-space park and ride facility at the site.
The scheme is due to be discussed at a community council event at Smithton Church on Saturday.
