The Joint Regional Planning Panel recently decided the company’s plans for 22 single-storey villas should not proceed, noting the matter was not straightforward and the documents contained conflicting views.

Maitland council supported the plan and added the site to the Morpeth Urban Settlement Strategy in 2015, which identified land for future development. 

Morpeth Land Company needed to add seniors housing to the permitted uses within the private recreation zoning before it could submit a development application to Maitland council and unveil its concept plans. 

Company director Brad Everett said he was still processing the outcome and there were many other possibilities for the site which were allowed under the current zoning. 

“We’re absorbing the outcome of the independent panel,” Mr Everett said. “Our genuine view is and remains that the best use for the site is traditional single-storey seniors housing owned and occupied independently by seniors. We believe there is significant demand for this, we were given the opportunity to go to the gateway review and we were given the opportunity to present to the independent panel.

“Whilst the decision to reaffirm the gateway for our particular proposal wasn’t successful there are some real positives in that they clearly state that they recognise that there are a range of permissible uses on the site that are provided for under the current zone and they give clear guidance as to what we would need to address when we determine which way to go forward with the site.”

The panel noted the plan was not inconsistent with the previous and current Lower Regional Hunter Strategy and said it put more emphasis on the council’s decision to add the site to the MUSS than it did the Morpeth Management Plan. 

The panel agreed with the Department of Planning and Environment’s suggestion that a “more holistic consideration” of planning controls for the fringe areas of Morpeth was needed.