A prime piece of waterfront land at Toronto could soon be the home of a commercial, tourism and residential hub after Lake Macquarie Council voted to prepare a development application at Monday nights meeting.
No confirmed details are available yet, but the development is believed to be as high as four to six storeys which, exceeds the two storey limit under the current local environment plan.
The land has been earmarked for decades with council purchasing property along Bath Street since the 1990's, for what Lake Macquarie Mayor Kay Fraser says is for economic tourism.
"Last night it was council taking the next step and deciding to do a feasibility report. We have just recently spent $4 million on the streetscape in Toronto. A number of our town centres have not reached their potential and Toronto is one of them that needs an economic boost.
"We can see that people want to visit Toronto but we do not have enough accommodation for those people and this is a perfect opportunity to progress through the plans to provide that very necessary target for visitor tourism," Ms Fraser said.
The Coal Point Progress Association said in a statement "the issues around lack of community space, growing population, lack of public awareness and protection of the foreshore received little comment from the councillors, who appeared focused on the tourist population and not residents."
 |
| The vacant land between Bath Street and Victory Parade which could soon be the home of the proposed development. Photo: Google Maps. |
