DEVELOPER Darren Nicholson has won planning panel approval for 209 housing lots at the Middle Camp or northern end of Catherine Hill Bay, and hopes to start work on the site by this time next year.
The approval caps a decades-long process that began when mining company Coal & Allied shut its underground mines in the 1990s, opening the way for the existing 600-home Rose Group subdivision south of the main township, and this smaller subdivision at Middle Camp.
Coal & Allied had the land rezoned and won a concept approval for the Middle Camp land in 2012, but sold it to Mr Nicholson in 2017.
In a determination last week, a four-member Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel said it made a unanimous decision to approve the detailed subdivision application, subject to a schedule of environmental and planning conditions.
Mr Nicholson, whose interests include former Newcastle council carparks, other sites at Middle Camp, and the Catherine Hill Bay Hotel, said he was relieved to have the approval after five years of work.
He said land in the area was selling for at least $1000 a square metre, meaning lots in the new "Catherine Hill" subdivision were likely to start at $500,000 or more.
He said some 526 hectares of adjoining land had gone to the National Parks and Wildlife Service as an environmental offset for the 28 hectares to be developed.
Mr Nicholson's most high-profile opponent over this project has been Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association president Sue Whyte, who said yesterday that "any delay in obtaining this approval has been Mr Nicholson's fault".
Ms Whyte said a range of concerns remained over the project, including mine subsidence and contamination.
But Mr Nicholson said the mine workings would be grouted.
He said he hoped to see the NSW government grouting fund used to underwrite Newcastle CBD grouting costs extended to Lake Macquarie.
He said Hunter Water had agreed to provide sewage and water services to the new subdivision.
The offsets meant "19 hectares of environmental land for every hectare of development".
Ms Whyte acknowledged that the provision of Hunter Water services could open the way for mains sewage to the existing Catherine Hill Bay houses, but she said many residents were happy with the way things were.
Although development has been a long-running bone of contention at Catherine Hill Bay, the township is also seen as lacking in services, with the closest shopping centre in Swansea.
On September 26, Lake Macquarie City Council approved a master plan for the town and its precincts.
"The master plan illustrates how the Catherine Hill Bay Surf Life Saving Club Precinct and Middle Camp Sports and Recreation Precinct might be enhanced over the next 10 years," the council said after the plan was approved.
The Middle Camp precinct includes the site of a former bowling club, which was closed and subsequently demolished after years of struggling to survive financially once the town's coal mines were closed.
Mr Nicholson owns land - Lot 3 in the map above - that surrounds the council site, and he agreed yesterday that he was still interested in a plan, raised some years ago, to move the pub from the residential centre of town to the old club site or nearby.
Asked about this, and the future of the historic coal jetty at the southern end of the beach, a spokesperson for Lake Macquarie City Council referred the Newcastle Herald to the recently approved master plan.
The master plan includes proposals for new community buildings on the old bowling club site but Ms Whyte said yesterday that these were likely to need state government grand funding for the council to build them.
She said the jetty had been left out of the original heritage listing that was given to the old township in 2010, but the progress association was still hopeful of getting it heritage listed.
She said the progress association was not opposed to development but was determined to make sure Rose Group and Mr Nicholson's companies did all they were supposed to do and "meet their promises to the community".
The council spokesperson said the Nicholson DA was publicly notified four times and received nine submissions while on exhibition.
Council officers recommended approval, with the planning panel the consent authority.
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