Tackling the housing shortage while ensuring quality of life for residents guided the Urban Design Review Panel's (UDRP) decision making as they assessed $1.45 billion in developments in Newcastle during the past 12 months.
The UDRP completed a total of 67 individual design review sessions in 2024, offering guidance to City of Newcastle staff and applicants on 49 different development proposals.
The Store development The projects are included in UDRP's 2024 Annual Report, which will be tabled at next week's Council meeting.
The Report highlights several significant developments, as well as smaller projects that benefited from design advice.
Proposals reviewed include the DOMA Group's $130 million twin-tower luxury apartment complex known as The Store, as well as developments such as a $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 plays a vital role in improving the design quality of new developments.
"The panel provides independent, impartial, and expert advice to City of Newcastle and applicants about the quality of the urban design and amenity of development proposals and strategic design projects," Ms Bisson said.
"The increase in demand for their services has seen the panel 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."
East End developmentChairperson Dr Philip Pollard said the panel enjoys 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, but we're mindful of the wonderful Indigenous and colonial heritage we've inherited," Dr Pollard said.
"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 UDRP also 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, the UDRP 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.
