A new growth blueprint for both the Lower and Upper Hunter will replace a nearly decade-old strategy that was mired in controversy over developer lobbying and set housing targets that weren’t reached.
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Planning Minister Rob Stokes will announce the government will devise a new 20-year plan to guide the delivery of housing, jobs and infrastructure in both areas of the region, and release it for community feedback before the end of the year.
“It’s commonsense to plan for the future of the Hunter Region in its entirety,” Mr Stokes said.
“The local community and councils told us this was the best approach, and I agree.”
It will replace the 2006 Lower Hunter Regional Strategy, which had been due for a review in 2011.
The strategy was criticised for the intense lobbying of government undertaken by some developers to lift its population target before the final version was released, and the inclusion of Huntlee as a development site.
New housing in the Lower Hunter has since fallen short of the strategy’s targets by more than 23,000 homes in the past decade, which as been blamed on various factors including the global financial crisis.
The government started the review process, releasing a discussion paper in 2013. Work already done will now be put toward the new plan for the entire region to 2036.
A Department of Planning spokeswoman said a draft plan would be prepared “in an open and transparent way”, entailing “extensive community consultation to inform the goals and targets for the region”.
Hunter Councils and Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund board chairman Peter Blackmore said there was “no need to treat the Upper Hunter differently to the rest of the region’’.
He said there had been concerns that the regional strategy had not provided the infrastructure planning needed to support growth, but this could be addressed in the new blueprint.
