The request follows a decision in the Land and Environment Court last year that overturned previous approvals on the site on technical legal grounds.

The former deed of agreement that applied to the site has been rescinded and the proponent has lodged plans for merit assessment under the framework of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.

The government will now consider the site’s potential as a State Significant Site.

The Greens have condemned the news, claiming the government drastically reduced the developer’s fees for the new proposal.

"It is simply outrageous that the government has stepped in to give a fees break to any developer which will leave the taxpayers of NSW seriously of pocket," said Cessnock Greens councillor James Ryan.

"The NSW Government’s schedule of fees for Major Projects and State Significant Site applications shows that a development of this size would attract an assessment fee of $935,000 and yet emails found among documents supplied to the NSW Parliament in response to a motion by Greens MP Sylvia Hale that all documents relating to the original Huntlee development be made available to the public show that the developer is only being charged $70,000 for its new proposal.

"That is an $865,000 free ride for the development company.

"How can the NSW Government claim to have a balanced approach to this proposal if it is giving the developer a such a large discount with public money?

"The Minister for Planning must charge the full fee for this development,” Cr. Ryan said.

Cr. Ryan said the new proposal was worse than the previous one, with 62 more hectares of land proposed for development.

"Huntlee has complex biodiversity and transport issues, and there is a large contaminated former mine site where there is clearly a need for a rigorous assessment of this proposed development. A reduction in fees by the Minister for Planning will simply mean the tax payer foots the bill for the developer's plans,” he said.

"Despite all of the criticism of the last proposal the new proposal is bigger than the last one.

"The previous proposal for Huntlee had a total of 853 hectares of development land and the new proposal shows 915 hectares proposed for development.

"The previous proposal had an unacceptable impact on the environment, and this one is worse,” Cr. Ryan said.