VETERAN Lake Macquarie property developer Keith Johnson does not receive universal acclaim for what he does, but he has achieved a substantial amount over the years, and is not short of a grand vision.
He also has the determination required to take on the planning authorities in court when decisions go against him.
His latest proposal - a complete remodelling of his landmark Trinity Point tourism and residential site near Morisset - is a textbook example of Mr Johnson's "think big" approach.
The futuristic design - the six eight-storey "hills" seen in the image above - is bound to polarise opinion.
It is also outside planning limits.
A scoping report commissioned by Johnson Property Group - available on the NSW government's major projects website - says the Lake Macquarie Local Environmental Plan will need amending "to permit the proposed residential development and to provide for proposed building heights".
The scoping report says Trinity Point gained concept approval in 2009.
Full approval came in 2016, but a marina, and a few buildings at the northern end, including a "temporary" restaurant, are all that has eventuated.
A controversial helipad was approved in 2019 but remains unbuilt.
As reporter Max McKinney writes today, the 2016 approval was for a much smaller development than the $720-million proposal now on the table.
But it's fair to say that a lot has happened in this region, development-wise, in the years since Mr Johnson was battling to get Trinity Point approved.
In the Newcastle CBD, high-rise buildings are no longer a shock.
Heritage values have not disappeared, but preserving the Victorian streetscape is no longer the dominant narrative in planning.
RELATED READING:
- Protesters lose battle to stop Trinity Point development (2009)
- Trinity Marina concept refloated (2014)
- Jennifer Hawkins ambassador for Trinity Point (2014)
- Michael Clarke first owner of Trinity Point luxury apartment (2015)
- Trinity Point tropical landscaping 'an insult' (2015)
- Trinity Point marina development begins at Morisset Park (2016)
- First stage of 188-berth Trinity Point marina opens (2019)
Then again, Morisset and the ecologically sensitive western shores of Lake Macquarie are a fair distance - and not only in kilometres - from inner Newcastle.
Still, the area is modernising, and the Newcastle Herald has reported on various big projects in recent years, a proposed $235-million redevelopment of Morisset golf course one of the standouts.
COVID has ended economic certainties, globally, but projects such as Trinity Point take years - if not decades.
Mr Johnson, whose business endured the global financial crisis, is clearly taking the long view.
Time will tell if the community, and planning authorities, see things the same way.
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