Plans to demolish a former Debenhams and build student flats are expected to finally move forwards next year.
The five-storey department store in Norwich city centre has been vacant since the business collapsed in 2021.
Proposals to create student flats with 377 rooms, along with space for shops on the ground floor, were first put forward at the start of last year but have since stalled.
However, agents for the developers said they understand a recommendation will be made to give planning permission in 2026.
Under plans put forward by Orford House Developments Limited (OHDL) most of the building would be knocked down and rebuilt to be eight storeys high.
The idea has been controversial, with campaign group Save Britain's Heritage describing the existing building as "handsome" and warning demolition "would cause substantial harm" to the city's conservation area.
Concerns have also been raised that the market for student accommodation in the city is oversaturated and earlier this year, the city council agreed to limit future developments.
Green city councillor Martin Schmierer said he wanted to see the building back in use, but felt it should be transformed into lower-cost accommodation with communal spaces for non-student residents.
He also questioned the plan to demolish most of the building.
"We are living in an environmental and ecological crisis, and the amount of carbon that that would create and put into our atmosphere is simply unjustifiable," he said.
Labour's Carli Harper, the council deputy leader, said the site was an "eyesore" and she was hopeful of "some activity there soon" to see if brought back into use.
She added that the authority's new rules on extra student accommodation had taken into account the Debenhams proposals so it would not be "a breach of that policy".
A spokesman for the company's agents - Lanpro - said the planning process had been drawn out by the "challenges of nutrient neutrality".
That is a government policy aimed to ensure nutrient levels in rivers, already high because of sewage effluent and run-off from farmland, do not increase further.
The spokesman said ODHL had been on "a long journey" with its plans but the developers understood council officers "will be recommending that planning permission is granted, allowing the redevelopment to progress".
"[Their] objective has always been to transform a dilapidated, outdated, and obsolete building into a thriving student accommodation hub with vibrant retail units at ground floor level,"