THE Chinese Consulate in south Belfast is expected to submit a planning application on its controversial wall within the next fortnight.
Matters are "progressing well" and plans being submitted "should help relations with the community", a senior planning official said.
The consulate has caused uproar in the leafy Malone Road area after erecting an "eyesore" metal boundary wall without planning permission.
A planning enforcement investigation has been launched and the city council has raised the dispute with the British foreign office.
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The consulate has said the metal structure is temporary, and it hopes to build a permanent wall that both meets its security needs and respects the character of the neighbourhood.
But residents fear the consulate will seek to ignore planning rules by claiming diplomatic immunity.
Plans submitted by the consulate in May last year, but later withdrawn, showed proposals for an almost 10-feet-high wall topped with railings and razor wire.
Aidan Thatcher, director of planning and building control at Belfast City Council, gave an update on the dispute.
"Matters are progressing well with the consulate and we are hoping they will follow advice and submit applications for their proposed works in the next two weeks, which should help relations with the community," he said in an email.
He added: "We will be providing a general update on the enforcement investigation for all interested parties later this week."
Residents have asked the consulate to share its boundary plans and agree a structure that complies with the conservation area.
Martin McBurney, who lives beside the consulate, called for unauthorised construction at the site to stop ahead of any planning application.
He also pressed for the council to go further in its actions.
"Belfast City Council has allowed the Chinese Consulate to continue working for the last 11 weeks and now the council will wait and in the meantime allow the works to continue for the next two weeks, during which they might put in a new planning application. This will certainly not help relations between the residents, the Chinese Consulate and Belfast City Council," he said.
The area is a planning conservation zone in which development must meet stricter rules to be in-keeping with its architectural character.
The consulate has defended its construction work by citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Last week The Irish News revealed that Attorney General John Larkin has intervened, with his office saying that international laws on diplomatic immunity do not exempt consulates from local planning legislation.
The consulate is based at MacNeice House, a listed building which dates from 1889.
