After years of playing third fiddle to the Port's tourism centre in the east and its civic/financial capital in the west, Medowie is, according to some business and community leaders, on the verge of an economic boom that could transform the once small village into a major commercial player.

Presently there are around 1000 new homes under construction or in the planning stages and a commercial town centre that is ready to explode with a range of new business ventures.

This strong growth, however, comes with a warning from State MP Kate Washington and the need of local services to match the expansion.

"As a local resident for 15 years, I've seen Medowie boom, but unfortunately the provision of local services isn't keeping up. Medowie has no police station, no ambulance station, no fire and rescue, and no public high school. We can't even get a decent public toilet," she said.

"The current situation just isn't sustainable, and as the local MP, I've been pushing for more local services to match the growth in houses."

Much of the new commercial development centres around the town centre site known on the Port Stephens Council DA tracker as 795 Medowie Road, which "has been subdivided into five lots and will be further subdivided into another four lots".

Approvals to date on the site, which has borders to both Peppertree Road and Muir Street, include a 7-Eleven service station, a McDonald's Restaurant, a tavern and a commercial precinct comprising retail, medical centre and childcare centre.

A council spokesperson said that the tavern and childcare centre were located about 100 metres apart and would be separated by a commercial building, McDonald's restaurant and Muir Street.

"The applicant submitted a Social Impact Assessment as part of the development application for the tavern. The assessment and our review of the assessment did not identify any potential adverse social interaction between the two uses."

Central ward councillor and Medowie resident Chris Doohan said that he also was confident there would be no issues between the siting of the tavern and the childcare centre. He added that it was exciting times for Medowie with a major town centre hub emerging.

"This commercial precinct aligns with the Medowie planning strategy and it is great that we can retain our business area in the one location, preventing a sprawl as seen in some other towns. Additionally, the planned regional park behind Coles will mean local people can support local business and at the same time prevent the leakage to the Terrace and the Bay. Along with the benefit to the economy would be an increase in the number of jobs," he said.

Fellow central ward councillor Steve Tucker saw the commercial developments as a positive for the growing Medowie community.

"Medowie is growing which equates to more local services, jobs and choice."

The council spokesperson said that a construction certificate had been issued by for the medical centre, retail tenancies, pharmacy, childcare centre and earthworks for the McDonald's.

"We don't have any record of a construction certificate being issued for the tavern approved."

Further enhancing the town centre will be the upcoming Medowie 7-Day makeover, where community members, combined with the council and Creative Communities, get together over a week to transform a section of the business centre on a limited budget.

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