Multi-million dollar plans have been lodged for a new service station, drive through restaurant and chemical storage facility at Hexham.
The $21 million proposal before Newcastle council would be built at 5-7 Maitland Road, near Sparke Street.
The development would be spread across two lots after subdivision plans were approved for the site in 2018, which included consent to clear, remediate and service the site.
The first lot is closest to Maitland Road and would house the service station, take away food and drink restaurant with drive through and parking for cars and B-double trucks.
A warehouse would be built on the other lot behind the service station, housing an oil package storage facility of approximately 100,000 litres and a flammable liquids storage facility of 10,000 litres.
Access to the service station and restaurant would be via a left in, left out entry and exit to Maitland Road.
The warehouse on the second lot would be accessed off Sparke Street.
Sparke Street is an approved B-double route, and also contains a recently constructed U-turn bay.
Ocwen Energy is behind the plans, and the company said the warehouse would be used to store packaged lube, oil and grease products.
The company has another site in Sandgate, but said it was not suitable in the long term because of its "limited" size.
A pre-DA meeting was held in 2019, where issues were raised with vehicle access, traffic and parking, storm water and flooding and on-site waste water management.
The company also met with Transport for NSW in 2023 to discuss the proposed access to the site off Maitland Road, the need for a deceleration lane, heavy vehicle movements into and out of the site and the Hexham Straight Widening Project, which will add an extra lane in each direction to Maitland Road.
