Development guidance - Inverness City Vision

The new Inverness City Vision sets out the overarching vision and aspirations for Inverness. The vision points to a number of key themes which will guide how Inverness will grow:

• The economy should be at the heart of everything
• Strengthen the City Centre
• A better connected Inverness
• A city for young people
• GreenNess
• Build on our assets
• Think tourism
• Culture, pride and identity
• Health and well-being

To help carry forward these themes, there was a focus on an action-orientated process. As a result, a number of city zones were identified which include:

• A9 corridor (including Inverness Campus)
• Waterfront - Recovering the Scottish coastal edge
• Strategic centres - City centre revitalisation and international learning, research and bio medical zone
• City cross - Linking strategic green spaces
• Spider - Restoring the city shape
• Quality neighbourhoods - Changing perception

5 action areas have been identified where key linkages exist between the city zones and those which require specific land use and transport planning. These include:

• The City Centre
• Longman
• Muirtown and South Kessock
• Ness-side
• Inshes and Raigmore

A key challenge has been to integrate these themes, city zones and action areas into the wider policy of the council and partner agencies. The key elements of the City Vision are embedded in the Highland-wide local development plan (HwLDP) which was adopted in April 2012. 

In addition, the aspirations of the vision will be delivered through a series of development briefs or masterplans which will be prepared for each of the action areas. The first of these is the Inverness City Centre Development Brief which aims to identify and promote key development opportunities and environmental enhancements within the city centre. The finalised version was adopted as Supplementary Guidance to the HwLDP by the Planning, Environment and Development Committee in March 2013.