A Hunter councillor is pushing for a parkrun track in one of the region's fastest-growing areas.
Maitland City Council will discuss a motion to incorporate a shared pathway in the Anambah to Branxton growth corridor on Tuesday, July 21.
The Anambah to Branxton Regionally Significant Growth Investigation Area is in the planning stages of development between Cessnock, Maitland, and Singleton councils.
The area could have up to 15,000 homes in the next 15 years.
Maitland council is expected to place one section of the corridor - Anambah Urban Release Area Development Control Plan - on public exhibition, which would deliver about 4200 lots over 500 hectares of land used for residential, recreation and local centres.
Maitland councillor Don Ferris has green space and lifestyle at the front of mind in putting forward a motion for the council to build a continuous shared pathway suitable for a Lochinvar parkrun into the plan.
Cr Ferris said he wanted to see improvements in green spaces and shared pathways and was mindful of ensuring development doesn't compromise lifestyle.
"We've got an opportunity to plan a great township in Lochinvar," Cr Ferris said.
"Better shared pathways will allow people to do active transport well, and things like parkrun are incredibly popular world wide and such infrastructure is going to encourage people to get out and be active."
"There's lots of different parts of the community who haven't met each other yet or have very few opportunities to get together so I think a parkrun in this part of the world would be a potential opportunity to do just that."
He said more people would participate in active transport around Maitland if the infrastructure was well planned and safer to use for people of all ages and abilities.
"At the moment some of the roads aren't completely safe to be riding on," Cr Ferris said.
"There's a lot of people in wheelchairs or elderly people that can't be taking bush tracks or walking on the nature strip if it's uneven or muddy.
"Parents knowing their kids can get to school safely... then they're not going to have to do extra trips in the car."
Council papers say a parkrun suitable pathway being foundational infrastructure in this development will lead to a healthy, active and connected community.
In Australia there are "more than 549 parkrun locations, almost 25 million recorded finishes and more than 205,000 volunteers who have supported events," said council papers.
"Parkrun has been shown to foster community connection, volunteerism, inclusion, improved mental health and stronger social networks."
Cr Ferris is also concerned with how these developments will impact traffic in the area.
"The Anambah to Branxton is a massive greenfield development program that is helping to address the housing crisis...greenfield development usually means more traffic," he said.
"We really need to make sure we're making active transport and public transport a real practical alternative.
"The plan is to take a good look at our beautiful natural areas.. and create a walk or pathway that allows people to go outside and go for a walk and enjoy our countryside."
If the motion is approved by councillors at Tuesday's meeting, the Anambah urban release plan will go on public exhibition for 28 days.
The Maitland local government area is one of the state's fastest growing regions outside of Sydney.
