Councillors in Buchan will next week be asked to sign off on a vision of housing and business development in the region for the next five years.
Aberdeenshire Council’s new local development plan, which will come into force in 2017, is the framework which will be used to make all major planning decisions.
A detailed draft of the plan has been sent to all councillors and is now available to the public.
On Tuesday, a special meeting of members from the Buchan area will debate the strategy for settlements like Peterhead and Mintlaw.
Both towns can expect major developments in the coming years. Space for more than 1,000 homes has been allocated for Mintlaw. Some of these developments are already underway.
In Peterhead, land for more than 2,000 houses and nearly 40 acres of commercial and employment development has been set aside.
Again, planning applications for many projects are already in the pipeline.
The draft settlement statements will go before the Buchan area committee on Tuesday for feedback from local members.
Each area committee has been asked for their input on settlements in their region, and all comments will be considered at a meeting of the full council in March.
Last week, the Press and Journal reported that a new policy to introduce a blanket 25% allocation for affordable housing for all new developments could be implemented as part of the local development plan.
Head of planning and building standards Robert Gray wants to address the housing shortage in the north-east by asking all developers to make a quarter of their developments affordable.
He told councillors he knew the policy change would be unpopular with many developers, but was required.