The Hunter Anti-Plan

It’s been described as “The Hunter Anti-Plan”.

Such has industry reaction been to the NSW Government’s Draft Hunter Regional Plan.

Speaking at the Property Council’s March Hunter Lunch, InSite Planning Services’ Planning Director, Stephen Leathley, said the current plan was bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.

He said the plan lacked an honest account of why the previous regional strategy failed, ignored blockages to greenfield residential development on the urban fringes and proposed no solutions for easing the Hunter’s deepening housing affordability crisis.

Describing the plan as similar to a script from the ABC TV Show Utopia, Leathley said, “they’re glossy documents with lots of planning jargon and PR spin that don’t really mean much – all sizzle no steak.”

“There is very little in the way of meaningful commitments, virtually no timelines and nothing on how outcomes are to be pursued, let alone achieved.”

Industry reaction to the Companion Plan for Growing Hunter City has been somewhat warmer.

It proposes, for the first time, that a metropolitan approach to new jobs, housing and services be applied to an area extending from Toronto and Swansea in the south, to Raymond Terrace in the north, and from Newcastle Harbour in the east, to Lochinvar in the west.

The concept of a Metropolitan strategy has drawn wide support, but the detail, or lack thereof, has attracted further criticism. The name “Hunter City” itself has been ridiculed as contrived and not a real place.

Leathley suggested, “the term Newcastle Metropolitan Area should be used to describe and reflect the area identified in the plan.”

Leathley also suggested the Hunter needed and deserved a Growth Plan with implementation authority modelled on the world-class strategic planning now occurring in Sydney.

“We should be cherry picking the applicable elements of the Sydney Commission model and adapting it to the Hunter.”

“The dream is simple – to have one authority responsible for all planning, redevelopment, implementation and approvals in the one organisation.”