Government plans for Broadmeadow include up to 20,000 new houses, an indoor stadium, aquatic centre, light rail and parkland.
The NSW Department of Planning and City of Newcastle will release the long-awaited draft "place strategy" for Broadmeadow on Wednesday.
The strategy will guide public and private development across the proposed Hunter Park sport and leisure precinct and surrounding suburbs over the next 30 years.
The document will identify four state-owned sites on the 63-hectare Hunter Park site to be targeted for quick rezonings to accommodate 3000 new dwellings.
Overall, the strategy will identify housing for up to 40,000 people.
Concept images supplied to the Herald show a new "Nine Ways" light rail stop surrounded by apartment buildings and other images of an indoor stadium, hotel and extensive landscaping.
The draft strategy amounts to one of the largest urban planning exercises in Newcastle's history and is the first detailed plan for Hunter Park since the former Coalition government announced the project seven years ago.
The Herald understands the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation will oversee the Hunter Park project after guiding the Honeysuckle precinct redevelopment.
The government's rezoning plans for the precinct and the draft strategy will go on public exhibition in the coming weeks.
"This collaborative approach to create a vision for the Broadmeadow precinct from different levels of government is about securing more housing and a better future for Newcastle," Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said.
"We have been working with council on these complementary plans, and I encourage the community to have its say when they go on exhibition."
The Herald understands the strategy identifies elements of the Broadmeadow plan with timelines between five and 30 years.
It includes a proposal for housing on part of the Newcastle Showground site.
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.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said Broadmeadow offered a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver vital affordable housing, jobs and infrastructure to support our housing strategy, as well as access to quality public open spaces and improved leisure facilities right in the heart of Newcastle".
The Broadmeadow plans were put on hold in the middle of last 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.
A subsequent review found the Crakanthorp affair had not compromised the integrity of the Broadmeadow project.
ICAC last month terminated its investigation, saying it was "satisfied that there are no reasonable prospects of finding Mr Crakanthorp's conduct is sufficiently serious to justify a finding of corrupt conduct".
Venues NSW prepared a master plan for Hunter Park in 2022 and recommended that a new 11,000-seat entertainment centre near Hunter Stadium should be stage one of the project, but the former government did not endorse the plan nor acknowledge that it existed.
The new plan offers a far more detailed vision of how Hunter Park and the surrounding area could look in decades to come.
The strategy estimates the Broadmeadow redevelopment could generate 15,000 jobs.
Minister for the Hunter Yasmin Catley said Broadmeadow had "unparalleled potential to deliver tens of thousands of new homes and jobs for the Hunter".
"The place strategy proposes a liveable and growing community which will stimulate development, encourage population growth and provide new investment opportunities," she said.
The government said in a statement to the Herald that Broadmeadow was well known as a leisure destination and "this project builds on significant sport, entertainment leisure and recreation opportunities that will attract major events to Newcastle with high-quality public transport so the people that live and visit can move around safely and easily".
