Wickham Master Plan - Abridged History and Documents
​28 Feb 2022: CN exhibits Draft WMP 2022 Update for public exhibition; ends 6 May 2022.
​
​22 Feb 2022: Councillors endorse Draft WMP 2022 Update to go on public exhibition. CN Urban Planners have listened to community feedback and will replace WMP 2021 Update with this version when endorsed.
​
Replace report with minutes when published.
​28 Sep 2021: Councillors adopt WMP 2021 Update. In the agenda, see Attachment A, Wickham Masterplan 2021 Update, and Attachment B, Summary of Submissions. There were 61 submissions made. As well as residents and individuals outside Wickham, submissions were received from Property Council, Urban Development Institute of Australia, Port of Newcastle, GYDE Consulting (on behalf of Bowline at 10 Dangar St), SLR (on behalf of 29 Bishopsgate St), Open Newcastle & Friends of King Edward Park. CN has done a lot of work to present and assess these submissions; Attachment B is a must read.
​
​2 Jul 2021: CN exhibits Draft WMP 2021 Update for public exhibition; ends 30 Jul 2021.
​
Jul 2021: City of Newcastle, 2021. Draft Wickham Masterplan 2021 Update: Feedback from Community Engagement. This is feedback on the Dec20-Jan21 public exhibition of Preliminary WMP Update.
​
​25 May 2021: Councillors endorse Draft WMP 2021 Update for public exhibition.
​
​7 Dec 2020: CN exhibits Preliminary WMP Update; ends 8 Jan 2021. This is not an adopted position of City of Newcastle; it is for discussion purposes only to seek early community input. GLOW welcomes this earlier than usual community engagement.
​
28 Nov 2017: Councillors adopt WMP 2017. In the agenda, see Attachment A, Draft WMP, Attachment B, Summary of Submissions to Public Exhibition of WMP, and Attachment C, WMP Survey Results & Verbatims.
​
28 Nov 2017: Councillors adopt Wickham Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Study.
​
21 Jun 2017: Australian Institute of Architects (2017). Wickham Master Plan: Submission to Newcastle City Council. An interesting read.
​
Jan 2017: The City of Newcastle (2017). Wickham Local Area Traffic Management
(LATM) Study - Discussion Report. "This study is to establish a Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Plan for Wickham" (NCC, 2017, p.2). This LATM Study modifies some of the Bitzios recommendations.
​
9 Jan 2017: Bitzios Consulting (2017). Wickham Master Plan Traffic and Transport Assessment for City of Newcastle. "This report provides a traffic and transport assessment of the master plan to recommend a preferred road network and street management system, pedestrian and cycling facilities and on and off street parking requirements. These investigations have also considered the traffic impacts of the development levels proposed on the surrounding network with the assistance of a traffic model. The model has been used to identify potential intersection upgrade requirements along with any local street traffic management schemes to discourage through traffic usage of local streets in the master plan area" (Bitzios, 2017, p.1).
​
22 Dec 2016: AEC Group Ltd (2016). Wickham Master Plan Economic and Market Analysis. "AEC Group (AEC) has been engaged by Council to undertake property market analysis and feasibility testing to understand the viability and scale of future development and renewal within the Study Area. Market intelligence and feasibility testing will inform Council’s masterplanning process through identifying the opportunities and constraints of redevelopment within the Study Area" (AEC, 2016, p.i).
​
Jun 2016: Hunter Research Foundation (2016). Newcastle City Council Wickham Master Plan:
Technical Stakeholders Workshop. "This report provides an outline of a 2 ½ hour workshop conducted on 18 May 2016 with 37 State agencies representatives and Council staff" (HRF, 2016, p.i).
​
May 2016: Hunter Research Foundation (2016). Newcastle City Council Wickham Master Plan:
Landowners Workshop. "This report provides an outline of a 2 ½ hour workshop conducted on 27 April 2016 with 68 land and business owners" (HRF, 2016, p.i).
​
Apr 2016: The City of Newcastle (2016). Wickham Master Plan Discussion Report April 2016. This report provides a good background to show how we got to where are. The forward reads:
"Wickham is changing.
This report identifies the challenges and opportunities for Wickham within its changing role within the Newcastle City Centre.
In 1996 the Building Better Cities Program introduced the concept of ‘A Wickham Urban Village’ within their concept strategy and study of the same name. The purpose of this document was to examine the opportunities to transform Wickham from a residential/industrial area to an urban village characterised by a mixed-use intensive development that has pedestrian based qualities, and is transit oriented.
The current development controls for Wickham are based on urban design guidelines adopted by Council in 2006. These guidelines sought to transition Wickham’s predominantly industrial character to that of a medium density mixed use suburb.
These guidelines have not been realised to date. This is partly be due to external (global) economic factors over the last decade but also the ambitious attempt to alter the existing urban structure by introducing new laneways, without any real incentive to compensate for the loss of developable land (e.g bonus height and floor space or a reduction in s94 developer contributions).
The identified laneways were removed from Newcastle Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 2012 as part of the State Environmental Planning Policy Amendment (Newcastle City Centre) 2014.
While the proposed Wickham Master Plan project area is included within the Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy (NURS) study area, the City Centre Development Control Plan (DCP) does not currently have specific character area controls for Wickham; hence the laneways still remain within Council’s current DCP.
The NURS identified that further work is required to identify appropriate building envelopes, land use and public domain planning within special area controls for both the ‘Wickham railway edge’ and ‘Wickham village’.
The Wickham Master Plan project will deliver a revision of the existing planning controls that reflect the opportunities and envisaged character of Wickham in light of its changing role within the Newcastle City Centre" (NCC, 2016, p.1).
​
Can't find this version??
Pre 2016: If you are looking for earlier information, please email info@glow.org.au and we'll see what we can dig up.
​