NSW Health urged Lake Macquarie City Council to place a residential zoning on the Morisset Hospital site, documents show.
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The 125-hectare site is on prime lakeside land and includes almost 100 buildings, including the 130-bed hospital.
The council rejected a rezoning, saying in a report the hospital site was ‘‘not earmarked for future residential development’’.
NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard will have the final say.
NSW Health wrote to the council in December to request that the site be given a ‘‘general residential zoning or some other flexible mixed-use zoning’’.
The letter, from business and asset services director David Gates, said the site’s infrastructure zoning was OK now, but it ‘‘may be restrictive for long-term development opportunities’’.
The disclosure follows a Newcastle Herald report on Saturday about a push for the hospital’s psychiatric services to be moved to ‘‘more appropriate settings’’.
The hospital site attracts hundreds of kangaroos and some have suggested an eco-style development to take advantage of that. But Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper said it was premature to discuss rezoning the hospital site in the absence of a strategic plan.
‘‘The community, patients and staff of the hospital have a right to know what Hunter New England Health is thinking,’’ Mr Piper said.
‘‘Discussions about the site’s future shouldn’t be compromised by stealthy moves to reposition it for redevelopment.’’
Mr Piper said successive governments had run down the hospital.
‘‘It could be at the forefront of providing mental health and other services to our community,’’ he said.
Hunter New England Health property manager Eddie Pirillo said yesterday the rezoning move ‘‘did not reflect any immediate plans to move services from the campus’’.
Mr Pirillo said the letter advised the council that NSW Health had been ‘‘reviewing and considering the opportunity to enhance clinical health services ... on the site’’.
However, a Hunter New England Health-initiated assessment proposed shifting the hospital’s psychiatric services off the site over the next five years and partnering with non-government organisations in the community.
Mr Piper said community-based care ‘‘sounds good in theory’’.
‘‘But we know from past experience that when similar policies have been put in place, many patients have fallen through the cracks and ended up receiving inferior care,’’ he said, adding it strained non-government organisations.
