Height, density, traffic congestion and environmental and social impacts headed a long list of concerns raised by residents as one by one they filed up to the lectern at Lake Macquarie council chambers on Thursday night.

Invariably, their speeches ended with a plea to the panel to reject the development in its current form.

SNL Building Constructions’ plans outline 91 two, three and four-storey townhouses on a 23,000-square-metre block of land on Dudley Road.

The original plans were lodged to the council in November 2013.

Three rounds of public consultation later, the proposal has motivated and galvanised the Whitebridge community, sparking the inception of the Whitebridge Community Alliance, which was out in full force on Thursday.

After hearing the community for three hours, the panel took a 90-minute adjournment, only to return with its decision to defer.

The panel’s reasons for deferral focused heavily on the development’s height.

It urged the developer to scrap four, fourth-floor apartments facing Dudley Road and another two, single-level units at the rear of the site on Kopa Street.

Panel chair Garry Fielding said it was a complex decision given that there were four council planning documents that set the parameters for development: Lifestyle 2020, a Whitebridge development control plan, the Lake Macquarie Local Environment Plan 2004, and its successor, the 2014 LEP, which was a draft when the original plans were lodged.

However, they all set a 10-metre height limit across the city.

This development, at its highest point, is 14.97 metres.

‘‘The design is very good in principal,’’ Mr Fielding said.

‘‘There are just those difficulties [regarding height].

‘‘We would like to see an urban design that would sit somewhat more compatibly, but not completely compatibly, with the existing area.’’

The panel gave SNL a six-week timeframe to amend its plans and re-submit them to the council.

SNL town planner Wade Morris said the development planned for Whitebridge’s future, rebutting Mr Fielding’s comment that it was ‘‘a major departure from the [suburb’s] character’’.

‘‘This is the first development like this in this centre,’’ Mr Morris said.

‘‘It’s not easy to be the first cab off the rank, but hopefully [this project] can set that capacity [for medium-density development] and hopefully drag everything along with it.’’

Whitebridge Community Alliance spokesperson Sean Brown said the group felt ‘‘reasonably good’’ about the panel’s decision.

‘‘We knew deferral was a possibility but we didn’t expect it,’’ he said.

‘‘I think what the panel asked for is an improvement but there were some areas they could have taken it further.

‘‘If SNL does the bare minimum we still won’t be happy but we’ll be in a better position than where we started.’’