The document will now be known as the Nelson Bay Town Centre and Foreshore Strategy and the Hunter Valley Research foundation has been tasked with the job of conducting an independent community survey to "better understand the community's desires and priorities for Nelson Bay".

"The survey is important to help assess the many views of the stakeholders that live, work or own property in Nelson Bay and is the first of this type in Nelson Bay," the council's strategic planning coordinator Peter Marler said.

The survey will be split into two parts, the first will target 400 adults on the Tomaree Peninsula including residents, property owners and business operators while the second will concentrate on Nelson Bay tourists. The first part has already started and participants have to read information sheet on the strategy prior to a phone survey with questions about the strategy and other issues related to Nelson Bay. At the moment the specifics for the second part of the survey, concentrating on Nelson Bay tourists are still being sorted but the objective is to determine what attracts different tourists to Nelson Bay and what they would like to see happen in the future. Nelson Bay high school students are also assisting with input to the strategy. The research company is due to finish the survey at the end of February with a final report due back to council at the end of March.