Port Stephens Council has recommended approving concept plans for the first half of the huge 3500-lot Kings Hill housing estate north of Raymond Terrace after almost 20 years of planning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hunter Central Coast Regional Planning Panel will decide on Tuesday whether to approve a concept plan for part of the Kings Hill site on the Pacific Highway opposite Grahamstown Dam.
Much of the 517-hectare Kings Hill site was rezoned for housing in 2010. About 208 hectares was zoned for environmental conservation.
The land is destined to accommodate about 10,000 people, almost the same size as Raymond Terrace, six kilometres to the south.
A company called Kingshill Development bought 64 per cent of the site in 2012 and two years ago lodged concept plans which include 1900 houses, a 244-hectare conservation area, school, town centre and parks.
The subdivision of the land will be the subject of a separate development application if the concept plan is approved.
IN THE NEWS:
A Kingshill spokesperson said the company acknowledged the importance of protecting koala habitat, which was why it had proposed the fenced conservation area.
Port Stephens MP Kate Washington wrote to Planning Minister Rob Stokes on Tuesday calling on him to postpone the HCCRPP meeting to give the community more time to digest the thousands of pages of documents posted online that day.
She wrote that it was "astonishing" that a meeting to decide what could be the "most significant development in this region for generations" had been scheduled three days before Christmas.
The sole director of Kingshill Development No.1 and Kingshill Development No.2, Quan Fang, signed a deal with the state last year under which the proponent will dedicate land for a school and help pay for a road interchange and water channel worth a total of $80 million.
The Kingshill entities are subsidiaries of ASF, an ASX-listed investment firm, and are owned by companies based in the British Virgin Islands tax haven, Bright Keen Limited and Sincere Ocean Investments Limited.