Broadmeadow could accommodate a massive 16,600 new homes under a redevelopment strategy being prepared by Newcastle council and the NSW government.
A source involved in the planning process said briefing documents included an "emerging preferred scenario" of 16,600 new dwellings, including 1600 affordable homes, across the proposed Hunter Park sports, leisure and residential precinct and surrounding neighbourhoods.
The source said the "preferred scenario" included high-density apartments on the site of the existing Newcastle Entertainment Centre and around Broadmeadow Station.
It also included housing on the Broadmeadow locomotive depot and on the privately owned UGL train workshop site in Broadmeadow Road.
Redevelopment on the scale of 16,600 dwellings has the potential to increase the population of Newcastle local government area from 170,000 to more than 200,000, or 17 per cent.
The former Coalition government announced Hunter Park in 2017, but the community has been waiting six years for concrete plans to emerge for the site's future.
The Newcastle Herald understands a Broadmeadow steering committee has met several times in recent months and includes representatives of the Department of Planning, City of Newcastle, Venues NSW, Transport for NSW, Hunter Central Coast Development Corporation, Crown Lands, Land and Housing Corporation, Hunter Water, School Infrastructure NSW and Transport Asset Holding Entity.
In March, Newcastle councillors endorsed preparing a "Broadmeadow Place Strategy" in partnership with the NSW government as a precursor to a state-led rezoning of land in the suburb.
Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes predicted at the time that "this site would be at least five times what we have seen in the city centre in terms of the complexity and the size of development".
The City of Newcastle website says the Department of Planning is working with the council to "identify land that can be rezoned in the first stage with a focus on building more homes within the precinct".
The strategy's footprint stretches from the rail line in Hamilton North to south of Hunter School of Performing Arts and includes Hunter Park and a narrow corridor along Tudor Street to Newcastle West.
Broadmeadow was included last year as the only suburb outside Sydney in the state-led Rezoning Pathways Program designed to accelerate zoning assessments.
The Broadmeadow plans were put on hold in the middle of this year when Premier Chris Minns referred Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for allegedly failing to disclose the extent of his family's property interests in Newcastle.
Mr Crakanthorp's in-laws own eight properties in or near Broadmeadow Road and his wife owns another property in the street.
A subsequent review found the Crakanthorp affair had not compromised governance surrounding the Broadmeadow precinct plans.
Mr Minns said at the time that planning could continue for a project destined to deliver "much-needed housing to the Hunter region".
Venues NSW prepared a master plan for Hunter Park last year and recommended that a new 11,000-seat entertainment centre near Hunter Stadium should be stage one of the project, but the government did not endorse or even acknowledge the plan.
Sports Minister Steve Kamper announced in July that the new Labor government was "reviewing the long-term development strategy for the entire precinct".
The draft place strategy and the state-led zoning application are due to go on public exhibition early next year.
