Lake Macquarie City Council has recommended approving a massive increase in height limits on the Cams Wharf waterfront to allow for a high-rise hotel.
A report to the council's development application committee meeting next week recommends raising height limits at Raffertys Resort by 329 per cent, from 8.5 metres to 36.5 metres, on part of the site.
Major hospitality and property group Iris Capital wants the higher planning controls to pave the way for a five-star hotel and an additional 121 visitor rooms on the tourism-zoned site.
The report says the height limit on other parts of the resort land would almost double from 8.5 to 16 metres to "increase residential yield" by about 20 dwellings.
The proposal to change the height limits attracted 161 submissions when it went on public exhibition last year, 158 of them objections.
Many of the submissions opposed the proposed development's visual and environmental impacts on the lake waterfront, increased noise, parking and traffic.
The council report says the multi-storey hotel will have moderate and high visual impacts within 750 metres of the site but will generate about 50 tourism jobs and help fill a gap in "large, branded four-star or higher hotel and executive apartment properties" in Lake Macquarie.
"There are limited opportunities for redevelopment of tourism-zoned sites in the city, particularly in high-amenity lakefront locations," the report says.
Council planning staff have also recommended approval for a separate Iris development application to demolish the existing Raffertys function centre and build a new pub, pool, car park and temporary function centre on the Cams Wharf site.
Iris has not yet lodged a development application for the hotel and apartments but has published a concept image showing an eight-level hotel rising above what appears to be a multi-level parking garage.
The report shows Iris has told the council the 36.5-metre limit would "enable an eight-storey development which is of sufficient scale to feasibly build and operate a five-star hotel capable of reaching an international market".
A height limit of 36.5 metres typically would allow for a 12-storey building.
The council report says Raffertys is in a part of Lake Macquarie identified in planning strategies as the "prime location for the city's tourism hub".
It is estimated the redevelopment would increase visitor numbers to Raffertys by 76 per cent.
Transport for NSW objected initially to the proposal due to a "history of high-severity crashes" at the Cams Wharf Road and Pacific Highway intersection but has withdrawn the objection after Iris expressed its intent to upgrade the intersection or hand money to the state government for the work.
The Raffertys Resort Community Association lodged an objection to the Iris proposal over the visual impacts, lack of consultation, traffic concerns and other issues.
The resort precinct, which includes the Iris-owned hotel and hundreds of tourism and residential cottages, operates as a community title overseen by a committee.
Spokesperson Peter Black said the proposed development would rely on private roads owned by the various members of the resort association.
"We are concerned council is being pressured into approving, and favouring, a large-scale development with significant height changes by a developer who has shown little regard for the impact on the interests of the wider community," he said.
"We acknowledge it's a tourism zoning and we agree with a redevelopment of the existing facilities, however, that development has to be appropriate for the site."
He said the community association was "gobsmacked" the council had endorsed the proposal "when they haven't received what we think is the information they have actually asked Iris for themselves".
Iris bought the 31-year-old resort hotel and function centre in early 2021 for $4.05 million.
