The Urban Design Review Panel (UDRP) provides independent, expert advice to City of Newcastle (CN) and applicants about the quality of the urban design and amenity of developments.

Some types of development must be referred to the UDRP. These include:

• Residential flat buildings
• Shop top housing
• Mixed-use development with residential accommodation component
• Strata subdivision of serviced apartments
• Any proposal within the Newcastle City Centre that seeks to utilise NLEP Clause 7.5 – Design excellence

Other types of development that may be referred to the UDRP due to their nature, location or scale, and likely impact upon the surrounding locality. These include:

• Boarding houses
• Education establishments
• Hospitals
• Multi dwelling and attached dwelling developments comprising ten or more dwellings,
• Place of public worship
• Seniors housings
• Serviced apartment
• Tourist and visitor accommodation
• Modification applications where the development consent to be modified was subject to UDRP advice and the modifications are not minor
• Any other development referred at the discretion of the Manager

The UDRP operates in accordance with the UDRP Charter (PDF) adopted by CN. UDRP meetings will be scheduled to meet CN’s operational needs. Generally, one UDRP meeting will be held on the last Wednesday of each month. The meeting agenda is determined by the applications received.

Applicants will be invited to attend the UDRP meeting to present their development proposal and to respond to questions from the UDRP members. CN will liaise with applicants to arrange and confirm their attendance. A maximum of 4 members from the Applicants’ team may attend.

The meetings will be held at CN's City Administration Centre or online and will not be open to the public.

The UDRP members are as follows:

• Chairperson: Phillip Pollard - AMENITY Urban and Natural Environments Pty Ltd
• Member: Kerry Hunter - Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects
• Member: Kristy Ryan - The Design Partnership
• Member: Kelly O'Connell - O'Connell Architecture and Design
• Alternate Member: Colin Brady - Colin Brady Architecture and Planning
• Alternate Member: David Moir - Moir Landscape Architecture

Contact with any member to discuss a proposal, outside the parameters of the scheduled meetings may result in the member, declaring a conflict of interest and being excluded from any decisions on the proposal.

The UDRP is an advisory panel only and the advice provided by the panel is to inform the assessment process. It is not the purpose of the UDRP to have any role in the determination of development applications, nor are its recommendations binding on CN’s determination of an application.

CN strongly encourages pre-application discussion, including early input by the UDRP. Early panel advice on a schematic proposal can allow applicants to address issues early on and save time later in the DA process. As such, CN offer pre-application UDRP consultation service where applicants can lodge a form with CN to obtain feedback on a proposal from the UDRP before a formal development application is lodged. A Pre-Application UDRP Booking Form (PDF) is required in this instance.

Development proposals that are reviewed by the UDRP prior to submitting a DA are required to be further reviewed by the UDRP after a DA is lodged.

However, a UDRP application form is no longer be required for referral to the UDRP as part of the development application process. To facilitate this, applicants are required to pay the relevant fees for referral to the UDRP on lodgement of the Development Application (DA). The DA will then be placed on the agenda for the next available UDRP meeting.

Details of the fees applicable for consultation with the UDRP are provided in CN’s Fees and Charges document.