Winten Group Pushes On with 1000-Home Newcastle Project

Winten Property Group has filed plans for the next stage of its mammoth housing project just outside Newcastle after planning and traffic issues put a spanner in the works for the long-term project.

After a number of conferences and appeals with the Land and Environment Court, the latest amended plans were lodged with the council this month before being sent to the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel last week.

Winten submitted amended plans to subdivide three lots at 10 and 10C Woodford Street in Cameron Park into 1058 residential lots as part of a huge residential masterplan.

The plans for the Link Road North Precinct of the Minmi Link Road masterplan comprise 944 standard lots ranging from 450sq m to 19ha, and 119 small lots ranging from 379sq m to 450 square metres.

Five future lots including a school site are also included in the plans submitted by consultants ADW Johnson. 

The site, which has a capital investment value of $116 million, has been particularly complex given its size and location, straddling the Lake Macquarie City Council and City of Newcastle boundary. 

The site of the current application is bordered by the Blue Gum Hills Regional Park, as well as a mining company and Transport for NSW landholdings, and along the Newcastle Link Road. 

It was initially lodged in 2018 but has gone through a process of multiple amendments, with numerous stakeholders including the transport department suggesting they were not satisfied with the traffic modelling. 

A refusal in December 2022 said that the development was inconsistent with the concept plan from 2013, and that it could be contrary to public interest due to traffic considerations and the impact on the environment from road upgrades.

▲ Newpark in Marsden Park, NSW, is one of Winten Property Group’s residential estates.

The concept masterplan for the wider site was approved in 2013.

These approvals covered a five-stage development of up to 3300 homes and two commercial centres across the 520ha site, with a capital investment value of $296 million.

The current application for the Link Road North Precinct is stage five.

The first stage, known as Link Road South, was approved and works have begun.

However, despite approvals from the Land and Environment Court in 2017 for 617 lots of stage two, works have not started as consent is “being held in abeyance pending resolution of traffic matters”. 

Winten Group has been behind major projects including a $750-million urban hub at the new Macquarie Park metro station, its $1-billion No.1 Denison Street development, as well as specialising in residential masterplans in growth areas such as Newpark and Moonee Beach Estate in NSW.