The approval of 300 homes for Turfbeg would complete a lengthy and complex planning journey for housing on the northern fringe of Forfar.
As its partner company Guild Homes continues work to keep up with demand for new properties at its 209-home Wester Restenneth development on the east side of the town between the Montrose and Brechin roads, Elite Homes has said the Turfbeg proposal represents an “excellent opportunity” to secure jobs and deliver much needed homes.
The application blueprint lodged with Angus Council this week reveals a rounding-off of land between existing housing at Turfbeg and the Forfar-Kirriemuir road, just west of the Forfar Academy campus.
The company said the application is the culmination of a decade of planning and consultation with the local community and Angus Council.
The development site was promoted through the Angus Local Plan Review and allocated as a “safeguarded” site for residential development post-2011.
Angus Council’s recent Main Issues Report (MIR), which informs the proposed new Local Development Plan, confirmed the preferred future direction of growth for Forfar to be to the North-West, on land at Turfbeg Farm.
Elite Homes’ pre-planning work included two town consultation events in which they said over 80% of those attending signalled support for the principle of development at Turfbeg.
Mark Guild of the firm said: “Elite Homes (Tayside) have chosen to lodge the planning application at this time to ensure continuity of development in Forfar.
“The partner company Guild Homes has, throughout the recent economic downturn, continued to develop in Forfar and Kirriemuir providing high quality family homes and ensuring local employment for the direct employees of the company, sub-contractors and many local suppliers,” he said.
“Moving forward, it is essential for the long-term growth of the business and to ensure job security for the employees that the next development site is identified, allowing the detailed design and planning work to progress.
“It is the hope that planning permission in principle will be secured in early 2014, with the detailed design and planning stage undertaken late 2014/15.”
The company say that if that timetable can be met it will allow the infrastructure works to start in 2015, with the first houses occupied in 2016.
Mr Guild added: “Elite Homes consider that, with the proposed new Forfar campus being developed on the adjacent land, the land at Turfbeg provides an excellent opportunity to provide a range of high-quality homes in close proximity to the town centre and the new community campus facilities.”