Environmentalists lauded it as a major victory in keeping the Lower Hunter Green Corridor intact last year, when Newcastle City Council ruled for a second time against development on the parcel at 505 Minmi Road. 

However the developer has now successfully applied to have the Joint Regional Planning Panel review the council’s decision.

The Newcastle Herald understands a panel meeting that was due to be held on Thursday has been deferred until November, after incoming councillors complained they had not had time to elect their two representatives to serve on the panel. 

Green Corridor Coalition spokesman Brian Purdue admitted it was a kick in the guts to find the rezoning proposal was back on the table, when they had been led to believe the council’s decision last year had extinguished any chance of development on the land. 

“This exhausting eight-year rezoning attempt in Newcastle council refuses to go away,” he said. 

“Now it’s going to the Joint Regional Planning Panel, we are about to find out if the panel is really about regional planning or possibly a rubber stamp for the state government to give these land dealers windfall profits at the expense of everything else.” 

At 26 hectares, the land is expected to yield between 100 and 110 lots, far from Fletcher’s largest subdivision.

But to the rezoning’s opponents, its significance is critical. The parcel is the only link between the Blue Gum Hills Regional Park and the green corridor, a continuous strip of native vegetation stretching from the Watagans to Stockton. 

According to Australian Property Monitors records, the land is still owned by property developer Peter Durbin, who purchased it in 2005.  

But the $20,000 application for the Joint Regional Planning Panel review, made in July, was lodged by prominent Newcastle businessman Stephen Barr. 

Mr Barr has served as the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s Hunter chapter chairman. He has also been a director of Compass Housing and a member of Newcastle council’s Urban Planning and Design Advisory Committee. ​

Mr Barr could not be reached for comment, but his letter to the Department of Planning indicated the plans to rezone and develop the land remain largely unchanged. 

“The attached proposal is the same application lodged with council, taking into consideration the Hunter Growth Plan and also the recent changes to the format of planning proposals introduced by the Department of Planning,” he wrote. 

Newcastle council first dealt with the matter in 2009, when it fielded an application to rezone the land from environmental living to low density residential. 

The plan was forwarded to the then planning minister Tony Kelly for gateway determination, but it was found that it should not proceed until more was known about possible environmental offsets and the maintenance of habitat corridors. 

The proposal resurfaced in 2012. The council narrowly voted to begin the rezoning process and this time, it cleared the state government’s gateway review. 

However a concerted community campaign followed to save the site, including about 400 people signing a petition to protect the “high environmental value” bushland. 

When the matter returned to the council for a final decision in December 2015, it backflipped on its original position, moving to block the rezoning.

The council reiterated its opposition to rezoning again in June last year, and in a rare move, the decision was endorsed by Planning Minister Rob Stokes. 

A consultant for the developer, ADW Johnson, approached the council in May to reconsider its decision. 

”We remain of the view that the land is suitable for both residential development and conservation purposes and will integrate with existing and foreshadowed development adjoining the site,” a letter said. 

“Demand for housing in the locality remains strong and additional housing opportunities can be delivered on this site without significant demand for new supporting infrastructure.” 

The request was knocked back on the grounds the council had delivered its verdict on the rezoning. 

Mr Purdue called on the state government to put the matter to rest by giving the land permanent protection as a biodiversity offset. 

“There’s major government infrastructure projects that are being planned to go through national parks and they will have to buy offsets for that, things like the heavy freight rail bypass, ” Mr Purdue said. 

“This is the only land that is really ideal as an offset, because of its significance.

“We’re not picking on this particular land owner, but if we don’t get this one then it’s all over.”