Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes has hosed down councillor suggestions that rezoning a parcel of land which includes part of the former heavy rail corridor will result in it being "lost to the community".
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At its ordinary meeting this week, the council endorsed a planning proposal to reclassify 233 Wharf Road - the car park opposite Scratchleys - from community to operational land, and to consolidate and rezone it with adjoining rail corridor land already operational.
The site would be rezoned to mostly SP3 Tourism. The car park land is currently zoned RE1 Public Recreation, while the adjoining land is SP2 Infrastructure.
Long term, the changes will allow for the redevelopment of the site to "a multi-purpose community space incorporating a community facility and public domain space that complements the surrounding land uses".
A building height limit of 14 metres would apply and development controls would ensure harbour view corridors can be maintained.
But the council does not yet have detailed plans for the site, and only wants to extend the car park at this stage.
The site adjoins a larger parcel of rail corridor land the council bought from the state government earlier this year.
Cr John Church, who voted against endorsing the proposal, said under the proposed zoning and 2:1 floor-space ratio a "four-storey" building could be constructed across "most of the site".
"Possible uses under this zoning change could see a community centre or even a hotel built on the site, and that could see the loss of this open space for future generations," he said.
Cr Church said "feedback" from the local community indicated "the desired outcome was for the land to be reserved for open space".
"The lack of clarity about what is planned for this site has created uncertainty for local residents," he said.
"If they knew exactly what was planned, then they could argue for or against it. In the long term, they would like to see this not developed."
He said locals were concerned "the site could be sold and lost to the community".
"The change of classification could see it in the hands of a commercial operator with, again, maybe little tangible benefit," he said.
Cr Nelmes said the council had "resolved in 2016 to rezone this land SP3 Tourism".
"It precludes residential development," she said. "It has to be for a community purpose, if anything is ever built on that site. We have been very clear and up front that it will be used for quite some time as a car park.
"The SP3 zoning also makes sure that any future usage ... would only contribute positively to the activities and activations in the way of art gallery, museum, community centre, indigenous education centre and the like. It matches the SP3 zoning for The Station site."
Deputy lord mayor Declan Clausen said the site had been subject to "the most extensive public consultation that had ever occurred in Newcastle" during the process of truncating and rezoning the heavy rail line.
"This land was originally designated for commercial uses, but the tourist zoning protects it and ensures it can be used for a proper tourist offering long term," he said.
Crs John Mackenzie and Allan Robinson also voted against the proposal.