Transport for NSW will back City of Newcastle's efforts to protect a future light rail corridor when the council heads to court on Tuesday with a developer who wants to build on the likely tram route.
The Newcastle Herald understands lawyers acting for TfNSW contacted the council last week to express support for the council refusing a development application for a car park on the light rail corridor.
TfNSW issued a media statement on Monday saying the state government had asked the department to "accelerate" identifying the corridor "to provide certainty in planning for all stakeholders".
It is the first time the department has acknowledged publicly that it is committed to protecting a corridor for extending the tram line to the strategic growth area of Broadmeadow.
City of Newcastle last year rejected developer Glen Greedy's plans for a seven-storey car park behind the planned Dairy Farmers Towers apartments in Newcastle West.
The car park would interfere with proposed light rail extension routes outlined in numerous TfNSW documents over the years, but TfNSW did not object to the plans.
Mr Greedy applied for a review of the council decision, but councillors laid the matter on the table in April despite City of Newcastle staff recommending it be approved.
The developer took the matter to the Land and Environment Court in May and the two parties will hold their first mediation session on Tuesday.
TfNSW north region director Anna Zycki said in Monday's media statement that TfNSW had been asked to "finalise its corridor investigations to support land use decision making in the wider Newcastle area by the City of Newcastle and Department of Planning and Environment".
"Significant investigation work has already been carried out around broader precinct and city planning as well as an alignment that integrates with future land use," Ms Zycki said.
"The NSW Government is keen to finalise this transport corridor to ensure future infrastructure needs are being properly considered.
"Finalising the preservation of the light rail corridor will also provide certainty for developers in the Newcastle CBD, particularly in the precinct around the Newcastle Interchange."
She said preserving the corridor would include examining areas around Broadmeadow, where DPE is investigating the Hunter Park sports, entertainment and housing redevelopment.
TfNSW said it expected to finalise its light rail route "in coming months" before publishing a report outlining its preferred option.
It is unclear what a mediated outcome over Mr Greedy's land would look like, but it could include TfNSW buying the site or the developer designing the car park in a way which could accommodate a future tram line.
The Lower Hunter representative on the government's Greater Cities Commission, Matt Endacott, said on Monday that it was "time to get out a permanent marker and put that corridor in place once and for all".
Mr Endacott, who represents the five councils of the Lower Hunter on the GCC, said work on extending light rail would take more than four years to begin but preserving the corridor was crucial.
"I don't think any of us expect an extension will stack up in this term of government, but metropolitan planning isn't about the next budget; it's about the next generation of people who will live and work here," he said.
"The public own hundreds of acres of land at Broadmeadow. We must be anticipating a future where thousands of new residents live or work in the area."
He said locking in the corridor would establish a "spine" for future growth and investment and identify the best sites for social and affordable housing and developments such as a new entertainment centre.
"The worst thing we could do is carve up land and try to weave a mass transit system through it later," he said.
"It would be a repeat of all the problems we faced building stage one light rail and at a much greater cost to the taxpayer."
