Lake Macquarie council has given the proposed Hillsborough basketball stadium a tick of approval ahead of the Hunter Joint Regional Planning Panel having final say on the $19.8 million project.
Council gave endorsement reliant on a list of conditions including an approved design for parking and access, plan for upgrade of the intersection of an access road and Waratah Avenue, access blocked from the Newcastle Inner City Bypass between 4 and 6pm weekdays and an event management plan submitted for approval before the first event.
Newcastle Basketball manager Neil Goffet said it was fantastic to have the council support.
But nearby residents are disappointed in council's decision. Mark and Marcia Spitzkowsky believe community concerns haven't been satisfied and the conditions left too much unanswered.
"They give them a year to get [the conditions] in place," Ms Spitzkowksy said. "That's really annoying, because the developer had three months of abeyance to get further information.
"I'm very concerned about the event management plan, which we've been asking for, for so long. The one that they put in was not complete.
"The event management plan, as well as the noise management plan, the council are saying can be a living document - 'we can have one event and see how that goes'. That doesn't really help us. By then it's too late. There's nothing in the consent conditions that say they have to limit the number of events.
"You can't avoid the fact that this is going to put a lot of people down this street, endangering safety, particularly of school children," Mr Spitzkowsky said. "It is going to be a very awkward site for the attendees. It will hold 335 cars, when that's exceeded those cars will be parked on the street. They're going to go into the adjoining streets, which are really narrow.
Mr Goffet said he was aware of issues surrounding the site. "We've done our best to modify the design around those," he said.
In a January post on the Newcastle Basketball website, Mr Goffet said the association had an agreement with Transport for NSW to investigate land at Glendale for the new stadium, while the Hillsborough application was on hold temporarily.
"We have listened to the Hillsborough community and agree with them, Lake Macquarie City Council and Transport for NSW that the site had issues that needed to be worked through," he said.
He told the Herald on Saturday he was "100 per cent behind building the stadium at Hillsborough" and hoped it was approved.
"The current stadium is falling down around us," he said. "The community needs this."
The regional panel will meet on Thursday to determine the application.
