A DEVELOPER who has been pushing for an $80 million bulky goods development at Williamtown has almost given up on Port Stephens Council after waiting years for an answer about a rezoning proposal.
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Crawford Robinson is the company behind the development and rezoning project.
Manager and part-owner of the land in question, Edward Crawford said despite initiating contact with the council in 2008 he was still waiting on an answer.
The proposed development would be located on about 27 hectares of land at the Nelson Bay Road and Cabbage Tree Road intersection with the land needing to be rezoned from Zone 1 (a) (Rural General Zone) to Zone B5 (Business Development).
If constructed the centre would create about 400 jobs and could attract large-scale retailers such as Bunnings, BCF and furniture warehouses.
It would be similar to the Kotara Homemakers Centre with a total value between $50 to $80 million.
Mr Crawford said it was an ideal location for the development with more than 10 million traffic movements past the site annually, combined with ongoing growth at Newcastle Airport and RAAF Base Williamtown.
He said it would help prevent the "leakage" of retail business to Maitland and Kotara.
But the council's group manager development services Mike McIntosh said Heatherbrae had been earmarked as the Port's next bulky good capital.
"The need for this [Heatherbrae as a bulky goods site] has been confirmed by an independent economic analysis undertaken for the now adopted Port Stephens planning Strategy," he said.
Mr Crawford said he had worked patiently with the council but was advised at a meeting on July 16 that council staff were unable to turn their minds to drafting a local area plan for Williamtown which would include the 27 hectare parcel of land.
"You could certainly argue it is (Williamtown) the number one priority for any planner ... to ignore it is professionally irresponsible," he said.
But Mr McIntosh disagreed saying the council was not ignoring Williamtown and was committed to implementing the Williamtown Strategy which included the Defence and Airport Related Employment Zone (DAREZ).
"It is important that we don't take an 'ad-hoc' approach to individual locations," he said.
Mr Crawford said Crawford Robinson had offered to pay for a private sector planner to work under the council's supervision to create a Williamtown plan but the council was not supportive of the idea.
