Lake's New Town
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday March 14, 2000
A NEW suburb for 5500 people providing up to 1700 permanent and 14,000 temporary jobs should be the ultimate result of a Lake Macquarie City Council decision last night.
The council approved the rezoning of 605ha south of Swansea to allow for the $500million Wallarah Peninsula housing project that covers land between the ocean and Lake Macquarie on either side of the Pacific Highway.
It is a rezoning that already has tacit State Government approval, although the changed zones still have to go through a formal process of consent and gazettal by Planning Minister Andrew Refshauge.
Wallarah Peninsula Project general manager Bob Vincent said yesterday that it had been almost three years getting to this point from the time the site was bought by Prudential then acquired by the Lensworth Group, owned by Foster's Brewing.
As part of the deal to develop two-thirds of the land, another third (or more than 211ha) of the coastal and lakeside land to the south of the site will be handed over to the State Government at the time the new zonings are gazetted, which is expected by June.
`The land will be managed by National Parks and Wildlife as part of their conservation reserve system so it will allow public access,' Mr Vincent said.
He said that in all 250ha was going into varying public open space zones. In addition, a further 22ha
Continued on Page 2
New Lake suburb approved
Continued from Page 1
will be handed over to the council for a wildlife corridor connecting the conservation zone with a red gum forest on the lake foreshore, north of Cams Wharf. Previously, the corridor was to have remained in private ownership.
Councillors unanimously agreed to the proposal and the zonings moved by deputy mayor Cr Greg Piper. Cr Piper said the present zonings were far superior to those approved in the late 1980s for the failed Gordon Pacific tourist and residential development.
But after the meeting, concerned Cams Wharf residents, who say the plans were incorrectly exhibited, were disappointed at the decision.
`I'm disappointed and I don't think council has made a good decision. There's community concern about the public participation process,' Mrs Ros Adams said.
About 350ha of the remaining site will go into a new `flexible 10(a) zone' which allows for virtually any kind of `sustainable' development.
Before any work began on the 12-year project, extensive market research would be done to gauge demand, Mr Vincent said.
An estimated 12,000 to 14,000 people would be employed to work on the development during the project's lifetime, with 1500 to 1700 permanent jobs created.
Mr Vincent said the housing would range from medium density through standard residential lots to large lot eco-residential designed to maintain as much of the bush as possible.
Four retail village centres were planned. The site also would include tourist accommodation in an environmental setting with an optional golf course.
Mr Vincent said he expected the first land release to be on the lake, and to be available for sale towards the end of 2001 or the first half of 2002.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald
