Planning department backs New Lambton basketball stadium despite concerns

The NSW Department of Planning has recommended approval of the proposed $102 million Hunter Indoor Sports Centre at New Lambton despite echoing community concerns it would worsen traffic, remove two ovals and rely on shelter-in-place measures during floods.

Save Our Lambton Ovals (SOLO) spokeswoman Jacqui Rosewood said it was validating to see the department raise the same concerns as the community, but "quite deflating" to read that it considered them acceptable.

"It's not just that there's going to be a traffic impact, or there might be a noise impact," she said.

"It's traffic and noise and the potential for flooding and the loss of the green space, and being able to park outside our houses.

"The cumulative effect of it all coinciding is, for us, what's just too overwhelming."

She said the problems were "unsolvable" and the group's bottom line was that the site was "the wrong location".

"Logical sense kind of tells you it's a really odd place to look at putting a massive building, in a really congested area and in a known flood zone," she said.

"To read on paper that a major planning department thought all of those things were acceptable ... it just makes zero sense."

The department's assessment report finds the project "approvable" and in the public interest, saying it would benefit Newcastle and the wider Hunter.

"Our concern has never been about whether Newcastle needs improved indoor sporting facilities," Ms Rosewood said.

"It is whether this particular location is appropriate, and whether the impacts on surrounding residents, school students and existing users of the ovals can genuinely be justified."

The report found traffic at the right turn from Turton Road into Young Road would increase.

Young Road already exceeds its environmental capacity of 500 vehicles an hour, with 605 recorded in the afternoon peak.

The centre would lift that to 693.

The department called the outcome "not ideal" but said the increase was unlikely to noticeably harm local amenity.

Up to 22 events a year would draw between 600 and 2500 people.

The applicant's figures show large events would need 834 parking spaces, against 231 on site once both stages are built, with the overflow expected on local streets.

The report confirms detailed traffic modelling for events has not been done.

The department was satisfied that management plans, a green travel plan and a condition requiring Transport for NSW to endorse the final traffic plan would limit impacts, which it described as short-term and mostly tied to medium and large events up to six times a year.

The site is flood-prone, and access from Turton Road would be cut during flooding.

The report says evacuation would not be safe, so the plan relies on closing the centre early where possible and otherwise sheltering upstairs.

The State Emergency Service told the department it does not support shelter in place as a substitute for sound land use planning.

The department conceded the plan would be contrary to parts of the state's shelter-in-place guideline, but accepted it because there is no off-site evacuation option and the upper floor sits well above the extreme flood level.

The department acknowledged the loss of the ovals, raised by 89 per cent of objectors, would be a "distinct and enduring change" for neighbours and is inconsistent with the state's Greener Places framework.

It nonetheless found the project consistent with the Crown land plan of management and the site's zoning.

Ms Rosewood said her group would examine the department's findings and recommended conditions as it prepared for the Independent Planning Commission process.

She said she hoped the commission would weigh the cumulative impact of adding another major sporting facility to an already busy residential and sporting precinct.

"After more than two years of community involvement, we hope the IPC will give proper consideration to the cumulative impacts of adding another major sporting facility to an already busy residential and sporting precinct."

"A recommendation for approval is not an approval, and the community still has an important opportunity to be heard," she said.

Newcastle Basketball's plan for Wallarah and Blackley Ovals includes 12 courts, three of them convertible to a show court seating up to 2500.

The department estimates it would create 326 construction jobs and 91 operational jobs.

The commission will hold a public meeting at the University of Newcastle's Callaghan campus on Thursday, November 19, starting at 10am. Speakers must register by noon on November 11.

Written submissions are open until 11.59pm on Sunday, November 29.

The Independent Planning Commission will make the final decision.

The IPC is the consent authority because more than 50 unique submissions objecting to the application were received.

If the commission approved the project, Ms Rosewood said, the only next option was the Land and Environment Court, which was not affordable for residents.

"This really is our last opportunity to have any influence."