City of Newcastle places Georgetown Local Centre plans on exhibition

Georgetown is the next in line for works in City of Newcastle's Local Centres program, and the council has placed plans on exhibition for feedback.

The multi-million dollar project will come after town centre upgrades in Beresfield, Stockton and Kotara. Works are also underway at Wallsend, Blackbutt and Newcastle East.

The Georgetown proposal includes turning the Asher Street intersection into a public plaza with seating and increasing the number of trees from one to 37.

This will decrease the overall number car parks, which Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said would be lost from residential streets rather than in front of businesses.

"We've done some initial consultation already... and a lot of the feedback was we have haphazard parking and traffic arrangements that mixed with a couple of pedestrian crossings can be a little bit dangerous," Cr Nelmes said.

"By closing off some of these roads here and creating this area as a public plaza not only do we create amenity, with 30-plus new trees going in, it also creates a public sitting area."

An EV charger would also be installed while the works will improve cycling and disability accessibility with levelled footpaths and an accessible parking space to be included.

"These centres were developed decades ago, where nobody was paying any attention to accessibility, so we are fixing that," Chair of City of Newcastle's Access Inclusion Advisory Committee, councillor Margaret Wood said.

Koko Hairdressing owner Corrin Dedman said a spruce-up of the busy town centre was overdue.

"It needs a bit of a freshen up," she said. "The community has changed and a lot of younger families are coming in, so it will be great to have something that's a bit more family friendly, with footpaths and more trees."

Ms Dedman said the safety improvements were also needed, after seeing a pedestrian get hit trying to cross the road and other smaller incidents over the years.

Cr Nelmes said Georgetown was "a really active and vibrant local centre", and was set for further development with a four-storey apartment building under construction further along Georgetown Road.

"We have a significant increase in population coming with the development," she said. "Which is really good for housing and medium density in inner city suburbs like Georgetown that can take that type of extra population and hopefully affordable types of unit housing with all this amenity really close by."

The plans are on exhibition at haveyoursay.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/georgetown-local-centre until December 8. The council plans to have the project approved and included in the adopted budget for next financial year.

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