An area of Port Macquarie is earmarked for transformation into a centre of excellence for education, training and health.
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The timing is right with the education, health care and social assistance sectors projected to have the highest rate of jobs growth on the Mid-North Coast to 2022.
There is a predicted 9.3 per cent growth in the local health sector.
Team that up with the area's growing population and the health and education precinct in Port Macquarie comes to the fore.
Port Macquarie Base Hospital, Shared Health Research and Education Campus (SHREC), Charles Sturt University, St Columba Anglican School and Lake Innes Shopping Village are all part of the precinct.
The precinct has been identified as a key part of Port Macquarie's growth.
Some 15 months' work culminated in Port Macquarie-Hastings Council's adoption of the Health and Education Precinct Master Plan.
The master plan proposes a new pedestrian spine, a new bus loop around the precinct, two new road connections into the precinct, a balance of facilities, services and activities and a green, healthy, vibrant identity.
The precinct would help position Port Macquarie as an increasingly competitive destination for university students, health care professionals and the broader community, the master plan said.
"Key to success is encouraging appropriate development that will support and foster a range of learning models and health-related services within an accessible, high amenity, attractive public realm," the document said.
Susan Proust from Hastings Birdwatchers raised concerns about biodiversity threats.
She said we were in the midst of a biodiversity crisis.
Ms Proust said there seemed to be no input from ecologists into the master plan.
"I feel it's simply not good enough the environment is always an afterthought and only lip service is paid to it," she said.
Council's general manager Craig Swift-McNair said the master plan was a very high-level plan and it wasn't meant to answer all the questions about traffic, ecology and so on.
Ecology, for example, will be addressed in future planning.
Cr Rob Turner said the master plan was visionary and the process had been inclusive.
The study area was loosely bounded by John Oxley Drive to the west, Lake Road to the north, the industrial area and Lake Innes Nature Reserve to the east and the southern boundary of St Columba Anglican School.
It excluded residential properties between John Oxley Drive and Major Innes Road and featured some additional areas between John Oxley Drive and the Oxley Highway and around Merrigal Road.
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