Lake Macquarie council is set to push ahead with a plan to create a suburb carrying the name of the city and will seek community input on three potential boundaries.
The council unanimously voted this week to conduct early community consultation on a proposal to create a new suburb around the former Pasminco site, and possibly surrounding areas, known as Lake Macquarie.
Potential small, medium and large suburb boundaries will be put to residents early next year for feedback.
The Geographical Names Board of NSW would then have the final say if the council chose to apply to create the suburb.
The Newcastle Herald revealed the renewed talks within council about creating a Lake Macquarie-named suburb earlier this month.
Past councils have previously attempted to redraft existing suburb boundaries to create a suburb known as Lake Macquarie but community opposition ultimately quelled the plans.
The small version of the three potential boundaries council will put to the community next year is expected to include the Pasminco site only, which is currently home to no residents.
That is the key difference to past attempts of creating a Lake Macquarie-named suburb.
The proposal aligns with the revitalisation of the former smelter land, which was acquired by the NSW government in August and is expected to be transformed into a retail precinct.
The council voted to submit a planning proposal to rezone 20 hectares of the land for large format bulky goods retailers in September.
The Herald has previously reported the interest of global retail giants IKEA and Costco in acquiring land at the site.
