Several important issues guided the Urban Design Review Panel’s (UDRP) decision-making process as it assessed $1.45 billion in developments in Newcastle during the past year.
That included tackling the local housing shortage while ensuring quality of life for residents.
As a result, it completed a total of 67 individual sessions in 2024, offering guidance to City of Newcastle (CN) staff and applicants on 49 different proposals.
Those projects are included in UDRP’s 2024 Annual Report, which will be tabled at next week’s council meeting.
It highlights several significant developments, as well as smaller projects that benefited from design advice, including the DOMA Group’s $130 million twin-tower luxury apartment complex known as The Store, the $19.4 million educational establishment on University Drive at Callaghan, a $6.1 million residential building in Hamilton and co-living housing on Denison Street in Newcastle West worth almost $12 million.
City of Newcastle’s executive director planning and environment Michelle Bisson said the UDRP played a vital role.
“The panel provides independent, impartial and expert advice to council and applicants about the quality of the urban design and amenity of development proposals and strategic design projects,” she explained.
“The increase in demand for their services has seen the UDRP increase to seven members, plus the chairperson, which has helped to cover the large number of applications.
“The collective experience of the UDRP members consistently grounds the advice in real-world experience, while balancing the practicalities and challenges of property development and construction.”
Chairperson Dr Philip Pollard said the panel enjoyed providing input into smaller projects as much as high-profile applications.
“We continue to see the face of Newcastle change and develop in an exciting manner,” he added.
“But, we are also mindful of the wonderful Indigenous and colonial heritage we’ve inherited.
“We’re delighted to see an increase of instances where applicants are presenting designs prior to the Development Application stage, proving applicants value of our advice.”
The Urban Design Review Panel acts as the Design Integrity Panel for some developments in Newcastle to ensure their quality and original detail is maintained or improved through to construction completion.
In 2024, it oversaw progress on 17 projects such as the Dairy Farmers Towers in Newcastle West, a 16-dwelling project on Church Street in Mayfield and Stages 3 and 4 of the Hunter Street development, part of the East End project by Iris Capital.
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