Sydney Morning Herald columnist, Elizabeth Farrelly, wrote this week that, 'Newcastle has long been a secret waiting to be told,' but in considering the impending redevelopment of the Newcastle CBD she wrote, 'The government's own UrbanGrowth, conjointly with Singapore-controlled developer GPT, proposes a massive new downtown development ... flanking the Hunter Street mall, is a weird mix of quasi-officialdom and outright gluttony. Almost tripling existing height limits, but only on its own site, this proposal is a case study in just how destructive it is when governments leap the fence.'
In response, Wayne Stewart, the Hunter Chairman of the Real Estate Institute of NSW joined ABC Newcastle's Carol Duncan on air, saying, "I think you have to look at the progress of the city and the progress of the development."
The NSW Minister for Planning, Pru Goward, also released a media statement in which she stated, 'The government and the city want to see NSW's second largest city embrace the future as a vibrant social and economic powerhouse in the heart of the Hunter region, and I know the residents do, too."
Given that the state of the Newcastle CBD has been a hot-button for at least 20 years, this is probably accurate, but do residents want to see 20-storey towers in the CBD? Wayne Stewart says probably not, "That's the short answer, but Jeff McCloy stated some months ago that it wasn't substantial for a developer to look at doing a development that was only a certain height, that was only a certain capacity,"
"What we have to look at is if we have to get these developments out of the ground, the only way they're going to come out of the ground is if the developer can find them feasible. There's a lot of investment and if there's not a return on that investment, the job simply doesn't occur. That's the viability of it. The heights that were given for Newcastle, albeit many years ago, at this point in time are just not viable, and this is why they have to look at rezoning this and making sure that the heights do make the development viable for the future of the city."
Elizabeth Farrelly claimed in her article that 'this development is so quantity obsesses it has trashed every other consideration - equity, process, heritage, scale, topography, urban form and transport' adding that it 'sets a precedent for developer-led planning that is dangerous even by Sydney standards' and that to 'spot re-zone at a developer's behest is seriously bad practice.'
Why should those heights be only for this particular development and why should they be at the irrevocable and irreversible aspects of the city? Wayne Stewart doesn't think they are, "I think the way it's been done - and I've only had a brief look at the plans - is to not completely block the views of the cathedral. I think that people on The Hill will see towers as a blight to various components of the harbour, there's no doubt about that, but if we don't look at these height limits changing, the development simply won't occur."
Many people have suggested that any tower-style development should be in Newcastle's west end, but Wayne Stewart says it's as simple as people wanting to live in the CBD and the east end of the city, "I think that's where people want to live. Markets are a very funny thing and they're not always there,"
"At the moment we're in a window of opportunity in the marketplace in developers' terms which happens about every 10 years. We've seen that with the very quick sale of the Arena apartments on the beach and with many other developments that have happened in the city. People want to live in the city, in the heart of the city and in the east end of the city. Whilst it's all reality to see we can move it further west, it's not where the bulk of people want to live."
But is it acceptable to simply say we will build it no matter how high it is simply so a developer can make a profit out of it? "Well, there's going to be differing opinions to that. I'm all for a balanced development in any area. I also heard this morning that it's not for governments to be getting involved in developments,"
And yet the government is totally involved in this development as it is a site partly-owned by the government. Again, Wayne Stewart thinks there's merit in that, "If you look at areas such as The Sanctuary at Fletcher, that's a joint development between the government and a private developer, and these sorts of developments are happening all around the state because the government realises that they're probably not the best people to go ahead with these developments themselves, so they partner with expertise who can bring these developments out of the ground and bring good communities whichever area they go into."
With such huge decisions being made about Newcastle's future at the moment - the sale of the lease of the port for $1.75billion, the failure to confirm that the next generation of Sydney trains would be built by local train builders, and the environment around the Independent Commission Against Corruption in NSW at the moment, should people have much faith at all in some of the planning approvals in NSW?
"I think if you talk to the institute about planning and probably a lot of the other major industry bodies, they'd like to see the existing planning regime thrown out and a completely new system brought in," said Mr Stewart, "Certainly with the regime that we've got in at the moment, and there is consultation at a lot of different levels, we have to look at providing a good community that's going to make the city vibrant. Whilst there's going to be a lot of objection to this particular development, I can promise that when the development is finished, this is going to provide people that will create the vibrancy in the city. It's people that provide vibrancy, not the buildings themselves."
To further use Sydney as a comparison, do people feel Chatswood is vibrant, is Newcastle going to end up like Chatswood on the (Hunter) River? Wayne Stewart says we may well do so, "If you come down on to the ground in Chatswood it is a very vibrant community. I spend a lot of time in Sydney, Sydney whether we like it or not and a lot of people think the best thing about Sydney is the road going out of it, but Sydney is a city which is made up of a lot of minute communities and that is the future for Newcastle."
Does creating a minute community necessitate a 20-storey apartment block? Mr Stewart says yes, "Well, if it's a matter of that's what it takes to get the community working in the city, then yes it does, because anything less than that - and (Lord Mayor) Jeff McCloy has alluded to this - anything less than that does not make the project viable, so it won't happen."
So, whatever it takes? "Well I think in a balanced way because there are many views out there and unfortunately with so many of these developments we only tend to hear the negative views. There is always a balanced view. And look, these things don't go through the local council without due consideration for the local community."
"I do believe we're in an exciting time in Newcastle and the reason we're seeing this growth in the city at the moment is because we're finding that many people are moving into these apartments that have been built over the last 10 years."
Is Wayne Stewart, the Hunter Chairman of the Real Estate Industry of NSW totally confident that this is the right plan for Newcastle, that we're going to get it right?
"What I know is that we need to bring people back into the city and the only way that that is going to happen in an affordable sense is to create vertical communities to be able to bring people back into the city. We don't have the depth of the market here in Newcastle that they have in Sydney, so the only way you can provide an affordable, vertical community is to have a critical mass of height so that you can make this happen,"
" I'm not saying this is the best place for it, but certainly along Hunter Street and in the inner city and in the eastern end is where people want to live, and as long as it's done in a balanced sense through the local government means, well then I'm all for it."
Requests for further interviews have been placed with the NSW Premier, Mike Baird, and Member for Newcastle, Tim Owen. As at the time of publication, these requests had been denied.
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