The state government wants apartment buildings up to 30 storeys high on the Newcastle Basketball Stadium site and 18-storey unit blocks at Newcastle Showground to kick off a 30-year strategy for massive population growth in Broadmeadow.
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The Newcastle Herald reported on Wednesday that the NSW government and City of Newcastle had finished a 139-page draft strategy for the Hunter Park sports and leisure precinct and surrounding suburbs.
The strategy will require an estimated $3 billion or more in infrastructure spending over the next 30 years on road improvements, parkland, flood mitigation, a new indoor arena, regional aquatic centre, Hunter Stadium upgrades and widening and beautifying the Styx Creek stormwater channel.
The spending would support up to 20,000 new homes accommodating 40,000 new residents across 313 hectares in Broadmeadow and parts of Hamilton, Hamilton East, Hamilton North and New Lambton.
One of the largest urban planning exercises in Newcastle's history has the potential to increase the local government area's 170,000 population by almost 25 per cent.
The government plans to lead rezonings of four state-owned land parcels in the strategy area, including the ageing basketball stadium, Police Citizens Youth Club, showground and Broadmeadow locomotive depot.
The "first-move" rezonings are designed to alleviate the housing crisis by freeing up public land for more than 3000 dwellings, at least 30 per cent of which will be earmarked as "affordable".
This first wave of state-led rezonings will not start until the government approves infrastructure funding to unlock these sites in the 2025-26 budget cycle.
Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation will oversee the strategy's implementation, including selling state-owned land, as it has done over the past three decades of the Honeysuckle project.
Many of the proposed 20,000 new houses are clustered around a proposed new Broadmeadow town centre, which would include a light rail stop and a pedestrian boulevard linking the suburb's train station with Hunter Stadium.
Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Newcastle Basketball Stadium and the PCYC would all be moved to make way for the first rush of apartments.
The strategy shows the "not fit-for-purpose" entertainment centre moving to beside Hunter Stadium and the PCYC shifting to the ground floor of a new commercial and residential building on Young Road.
Unlike previous proposals for Hunter Park, the strategy suggests Newcastle Show will continue on the historic showground site.
"Large-scale community events will be able to continue to operate within the showring area," the strategy says.
The strategy says the broader showground site, including the existing entertainment centre and parking areas, will be rezoned for apartment buildings between eight and 18 storeys high.
Newcastle Basketball has applied to build a new stadium using $25 million in state funding on playing fields on the western side of Turton Road, but the plan has met with opposition from sports clubs and residents.
The Broadmeadow strategy lists relocating the basketball stadium among infrastructure priorities for the area but says the "proposed location is to be decided".
The strategy includes extensive works to alleviate future flood risks in the low-lying area, including raising the height of Griffith Road and Lambton Road and lowering the Smith Park sport fields to establish a water retention basin.
The strategy shows the UGL Goninan's rail workshop in Broadmeadow Road transforming into a residential neighbourhood with apartment buildings about eight storeys high.
Venues NSW prepared a plan for Hunter Park in 2022 which recommended an 11,000-seat entertainment centre as the first step in the redevelopment.
The draft strategy released on Wednesday does not specify the size of the proposed new indoor arena, but concept images depict it as a substantial building surrounded by bars, restaurants and a hotel.
The strategy says the precinct immediately surrounding Hunter Stadium and the new entertainment centre should encourage crowds to stay longer before and after events.
"Broadmeadow aims to become a destination choice for entertainment, recreation and a place to live, work and play," it says.
"The eat street-type area of the sub-precinct will incorporate mixed-use developments of up to 15 storeys, with retail, commercial and dining opportunities activating the street, while homes are located at upper levels.
"The pedestrian-priority boulevard and a route around McDonald Jones Stadium to the mixed-use area will be provided as civic spaces to encourage social interaction and increase dwell times in the public domain."
The strategy says a "mass-transit corridor" is "preserved and ultimately delivered" along Tudor and Belford streets "to allow frequent and quality public transport from Newcastle Interchange to Broadmeadow".
It says this corridor has a "future envisaged to be light rail" but lists the project as a "long-term" goal 20 to 30 years into the future.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said on Wednesday that she would like to see the timing of the light rail extension brought forward.
The strategy splits projected infrastructure spending into short-, medium- and long-term priorities.
Among the stage-one priorities for the next decade are new public open spaces at the showground, a new entertainment centre, the station-to-stadium boulevard, replacement basketball stadium, Hunter Stadium upgrades, new PCYC and flood mitigation.
The first stage also focuses on "sensitively" integrating the state heritage-listed Broadmeadow locomotive depot with new housing and open space.
In 10 to 20 years, the strategy envisions shifting the harness racing track to make way for the swim centre and more apartment and commercial buildings, a move which will require tens of millions of dollars in state funding.
Also in stage two are transforming District Park and Broadmeadow football club's Magic Park into an "accessible public open space" and replacing the tennis centre with apartments and commercial buildings.
More high-density apartments would follow in stage three on the Goninan's site and on land between Griffiths Road and Broadmeadow Station.
The draft strategy and the state's first rezoning plans will go on public exhibition in the next two months.
Cr Nelmes said the strategy provided the community with a detailed look at the government's plans for Broadmeadow after months of technical investigations into the site.
"This project is one of the largest single planning changes for a sports and entertainment and housing precinct not just in NSW but Australia-wide," she said.
"It's important that we have a couple of months in June and July to do some detailed consultation with the community."
Cr Nelmes said the state planning minister would issue a direction under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act requiring rezoning proposals to follow the strategy's aims.
"That will then give certainty to not only the government land for this part of the first-move rezoning but any other private land in this area and the expectations around what's allowable in terms of height and floor space ratio," she said.
'Giant windfall'
She said the strategy represented "probably a giant windfall" for private land owners in the subject area.
"If you own land in this precinct that's been significantly up-zoned, that is an exceptionally favourable outcome for them."
Cr Nelmes said sports club in the precinct would face "a lot of movement ... so there will need to be significant funding given to those clubs and community organisations".
She said the council hoped the precinct would attract state and federal funding and include a high-speed rail stop at Broadmeadow Station.
"Never before in the history of this site have we been ever given a planning pathway that allows us to actually go for hard funding for hard and soft infrastructure," she said.
Minister for the Hunter Yasmin Catley said the Broadmeadow strategy area would help the government meet its housing targets.
"I find it hard to imagine 20,000 homes, but it is a huge site," she said.
"We're in a housing crisis, and this is going to be a key piece for the government in addressing the housing crisis here in our town."
The Property Council of Australia and the Housing Industry Association both welcomed the strategy.
HIA Hunter executive director Craig Jennion said the document "provides an exciting opportunity for Newcastle to be bold".
"The 300-hectare site is one of the most exciting mixed-use urban renewal projects in Australia," he said.
"The opportunity to combine sport, entertainment, employment and housing will revolutionise the way we live, work and play."
Property Council NSW deputy executive director Anita Hugo said HCCDC was well placed to oversee the project "given their significant work and achievement in Newcastle's revitalisation, including the successful redevelopment of the Honeysuckle precinct".
The Broadmeadow plans were put on hold in the middle of last year when Premier Chris Minns referred Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for allegedly failing to disclose the extent of his family's property interests in Newcastle.
A subsequent review found the Crakanthorp affair had not compromised the integrity of the Broadmeadow project.
ICAC last month terminated its investigation, saying it was "satisfied that there are no reasonable prospects of finding Mr Crakanthorp's conduct is sufficiently serious to justify a finding of corrupt conduct".
Mr Crakanthorp did not attend Wednesday's media conference to announce the strategy.
Asked if the Newcastle MP would be part of the planning process for Broadmeadow, Ms Catley said: "That's a question for the member for Newcastle."
A NSW government spokesperson told the Herald that "members of Parliament must abide by their conflict of interest obligations under the members' code of conduct".
Mr Crakanthorp said he would "manage conflicts of interest in relation to the Broadmeadow precinct on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the code of conduct for members of Parliament".
Michael Parris
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
Michael Parris reports on politics for the Newcastle Herald. He started at the Herald in 1994 after working in the ABC Newcastle newsroom. Michael spent much of his career as a sub-editor before moving into political reporting in 2017. He was a finalist in the Sports Australia national media awards for his stories about a male-only tennis club in Newcastle. He has covered NSW and federal elections, state and federal budgets and local politics. He has also written extensively about the COVID-19 pandemic with a special focus on data analysis and the effects of lockdowns on the Hunter community.
