A 2500-home masterplan at Port Stephens is moving forward after 15 years of planning and legal battles.
Kings Hill Development has submitted a scoping report to the NSW Government to progress its seven-precinct, $1.4-billion plan.
The development vehicle is spearheaded by managing director David Fang, also executive director of the ASX-listed ASF Group, who is known for investments in major hotel projects, the $100-million Gold Coast Integrated Resort.
The scoping report is the latest milestone in a development journey that began in 2010 when the state rezoned land at Kings Hill north of Raymond Terrace in the Port Stephens LGA.
The previously rural land was rezoned to “support a mix of general residential, mixed-use and local centre zones” and was expected to deliver 3500 homes over a 25-year period.
Kings Hill Development owns the majority of the land in the Kings Hill Urban Release Area, and wants to progress the delivery of housing in the area.
But previous attempts have faced considerable obstacles.
Proposals for the development of 94 per cent of the urban release area was rejected by the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel in 2022, despite Port Stephens Council recommending it for conditional approval.
An appeal against that decision went before the Land and Environment Court in 2023.
Initial council objections to the development of 517.13ha for 1900 residential lots hinged on the “disorderly and uneconomic use” of the land and unacceptable impacts on threatened species.
The plans were also criticised for a lack of arrangements for “designated state public infrastructure”. The court agreed, refusing to grant consent for the development.
Kings Hill Development went back to the drawing board and said in its latest scoping report that it wanted to establish a “transparent and robust assessment process that will underpin sustainable development of the land”.
The development group said that “several tens of millions of dollars” had been invested in the project over the years.
At the same time, it said, it wanted to address the “urgent” need for affordable housing, balanced with ecological protection measures “to halt and reverse the decline of the local koala population”.
It also criticised “instances where scientific data may not have been fully interpreted” and noted “suggestions that the applicant was implementing financial shortcuts … to move around new offsets policy when the application was made under former legislative requirements”.
Kings Hill Development said that the SSD process was the “optimal way for this project to be considered for future delivery”.
Kings Hill has proposed 2500 homes across seven precincts, supported by local centres with education and health infrastructure as well as environmental conservation areas.
There would be a minimum of 10 per cent affordable housing for houses, residential apartments and shoptop housing, as well as diverse affordability and typologies.
It also proposed a new public school and a health and medical precinct. Preliminary modelling also includes a 500-home residential aged-care and senior-housing scheme.
A 3.5ha park, with a skate park and sports courts, six additional local parks and a community centre and library are also part of the proposal.
It emphasised that Lots 6 and 7 were not included in the SSD application as they are being progressed under separate local development applications submitted to the Port Stephens Council.
The site is 25km north of the Newcastle CBD and 135km north of the Sydney CBD. It was of “significant ecological and Aboriginal importance,” the report said.
The developer is now asking for Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements to progress its project through the State Significant pathway.
