A social housing developer is seeking to bulldoze 23 ageing single-storey homes and replace them with 187 apartments, planning documents reveal.
Hume Housing is preparing to lodge two separate development applications for sites in Metford and Rutherford.
If approved, the units would be spread across 10 new residential apartment buildings.
Pre-development applications lodged with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) reveal the scale of the two projects.
Together they are worth almost $99 million and would deliver a mix of social and affordable housing for the Hunter Region.
"The proposed development seeks to replace existing housing that has reached the end of its useful life with in-fill residential flat buildings," planning documents for the Rutherford site state.
"The proposal will provide social housing and affordable housing on the one development site owned by Homes NSW and managed by Hume Housing."
The larger of the two proposals - at 1-7 and 11 Willow Drive, 34-38 Schanck Drive and 1-9 Cassia Way in Metford - would demolish 13 existing houses and replace them with six residential flat buildings.
Plan show those buildings would be three or four storeys and contain a combined total of 106 apartments.
The Metford development is estimated to be worth $55.4 million.
The project is expected to generate 280 construction jobs and six ongoing operational roles, the documents state, and would ultimately house 176 people.
The Metford site already contains 13 lots of single-storey brick, weatherboard and fibre cement homes.
The existing properties are owned by Homes NSW and managed by Hume.
Under the proposal, ownership of the 8807-square-metre site would be divided between Hume and Homes NSW. Hume would operate the entire development under a 49-year lease.
The apartments comprise six studios, 42 one-bedroom flats, 34 two-bedroom units and 13 three-bedroom apartments.
Another 11 will be accessible dwellings, and the buildings are proposed to have a maximum height of 14.3 metres.
Half the apartments would be allocated for social housing and half for affordable housing.
Hume would be required to retain the affordable housing for at least 15 years.
The smaller Rutherford proposal covers 10 properties at 8-20 Harvey Road and 301-305 New England Highway.
Hume is seeking to demolish the existing 1970s-era detached houses and replace them with four residential flat buildings.
The buildings would be three storeys high and would contain 81 apartments, 15 studios, 23 one-bedroom apartments and 35 two-bedroom dwellings, plus eight accessible units.
The estimated development cost at Rutherford is $43.4 million, with 280 construction jobs and 133 future residents anticipated.
Both projects are being pursued under the state-significant development "in-fill affordable housing" pathway.
That route allows eligible affordable housing projects worth more than $30 million to seek approval from NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully rather than Maitland council.
