Councillors agreed to request a gateway determination from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment for the 169ha site north of Glendale.

It is the first step in the process to develop the land owned by Eden Estates, which straddles both Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas. The total site area is about 592ha and includes the parts of Glendale, Edgeworth, Cameron Park, Elermore Vale and Wallsend. It is estimated 3000-4000 homes will be built, 750-1000 of which will be in Lake Macquarie City.

Council said it was its largest land rezoning in 10 years.

The report to council said the proposal sought to rezone the site to provide more housing, employment land and community infrastructure such as open space and recreation areas along with transport networks, while protecting watercourses and important ecological areas.

The Lake Macquarie portion of the site is currently zoned RU6 Transition and E2 Environmental Conservation. The RU6 Transition zone identifies land that may be suitable for future urban purposes subject to environmental investigations.

Councillor Brian Adamthwaite said it was great that the Link Road was already established ahead of the development, but that further attention to other roads would be needed.

"It's nice to see there's actually some major infrastructure in place before things get built which is usually not the way it works," he said.

"But we also need to make sure we keep an eye out for what's happening with Minmi Road. I know that for many years I have been advocating that it should become a state road and this again highlights the fact that it really should be a significant state road given the fact that it is the on-ramp to two freeways.

"This also increases the concern for the people living in the northwest of our city for the scale of infrastructure and facilities that we need."

Mayor Kay Fraser said the increase in houses was welcome.

"We'll see a huge amount of housing stock come on," she said. "We'll see more affordable housing and we'll see those young families hopefully getting into their first new home and be able to contribute to our economy."

Lake Macquarie Council staff are working with City of Newcastle and Eden Estates to progress the proposal. Following rezoning of the site, a development application would be submitted.

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