LAKE Macquarie City Council is understandably proud of the environmental beauty and value of much of the 750 square kilometres of land and water within its jurisdiction.
It knows, however, that the Lower Hunter more broadly is home to a growing population, and that it needs to balance the often competing priorities of the environment and the community.
In the Hunter as elsewhere, one solution has been higher density living in existing residential areas.
As reporter Sage Swinton outlines today, Lake council wants NSW government planning approval to encourage more medium-density "infill" development in a plan it says will mean changes for 8000 building lots across 28 suburbs.
Even if they understand the environmental arguments against greenfield housing, residents in impacted areas don't always welcome the "densification".
The Cardiff resident who spoke to the Newcastle Herald, David Byrnes, is no doubt one of many who accept the logic behind the plan, but who want assurances they will not be forgotten in the push to implement the policy.
The council says resident surveys support a push for more housing variety in existing suburbs.
In implementing its adopted housing strategy, the council has prepared a draft planning proposal and a draft amended Development Control Ban, which both finish four weeks of public exhibition today.
THE COUNCIL DOCUMENTS HERE
The first 15 pages of the planning proposal outline the aims and implications of the changes, with the rest of the 151-page document given over to detailed, lot-by-lot maps of the areas affected. These maps show landowners or residents how directly, or otherwise, the proposals affect them.
In an explanatory video, the council describes the changes as "modest", with assurances that most of the selected areas are already zoned for medium-density development.
The council says it is not proposing "high-rise across the city" but is looking to "remove unintentional barriers to already permissible developments".
On paper, the predicted population increases of 13 per cent in 15 years and 20 per cent by 2050 are not huge.
But the policy will mean detached houses making way for apartments and terraces and townhouses.
So the council should not put the lure of extra rates and development levies ahead of the concerns of its residents.
ISSUE: 39,709
