Residents will have a chance to have their say on the major overhaul of Broadmeadow after Newcastle council endorsed a draft strategy for exhibition.
The council approved the draft Broadmeadow Place Strategy, which outlines a 30-year plan for the suburb including up to 20,000 new homes, 40,000 new residents and apartment buildings up to 30 storeys high.
The strategy will be exhibited for 42 days.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes added a point to the motion calling for an extension of the light rail corridor in the first 10 years of the plan's implementation.
She said while the plans would go a long way to addressing the housing crisis, the plan needed to be about more than just "residential apartment blocks".
"It has to come with the right amount of infrastructure investment to make it work," she said. "That is the road networks, the flooding, the drainage, the uplift of the sporting precinct."
Greens councillor John Mackenzie said the plan would add roughly Tamworth's equivalent population and number of homes to Broadmeadow.
"It's an extraordinary undertaking," he said.
"The planning challenge of being able to do that in a way that meets those job growth and population growth targets, without compromising amenity, without putting pressure on infrastructure, making sure we don't make the mistakes of the past where our infrastructure always lags behind the residential and commercial development.
"We're actually getting on top of that from the beginning."
Cr Mackenzie highlighted social infrastructure including health services, aged care and schools as important considerations that needed a high level of focus.
Cr Nelmes said the public exhibition was a chance for everyone to have their say, including private organisations interested in developing sites within the precinct.
She described the redevelopment as "a once in a generation opportunity."
"There is potentially over $3 billion of investment that will need to go into this site to make it work," Cr Nelmes said.
After the strategic planning process has been finalised, a delivery plan and business case for the future development of the first rezoning will be considered by NSW government. This is expected to occur in early 2025.
The strategy is expected to be put on public exhibition in mid-June.
To comment on the plans, visit haveyoursay.newcastle.nsw.gov.au.
