Port Stephens was under consideration as the main seaport for New South Wales,[6] as well as the national capital, and a large city-style subdivision of the peninsula was designed by Walter Burley Griffin.

[10] [9] Marion Mahony Griffin credited her husband, in her unpublished biography "Magic of America", with the identification of the locality as one of only two ‘natural seaports’ in Australia.

She wrote that ‘in his innocence he interested a client, who was carrying on a considerable real estate business, in the opportunity offered at Port Stephens … It was surveyed and staked out and the allotments rapidly sold’.

[12] Consequently, land sales at North Arm Cove have been the subject of controversy for many years, even being raised as a matter in the NSW Parliament.

In 2019 group of landowners, with assistance from team of architect and planners from DESIM-Arch, has created "North Arm Cove Initiative".

Aim of the Initiative is to promote urban development of North Arm Cove respecting planning heritage of Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin and creating regenerative, resilient, sustainable community.

[17] In 2022, a peer reviewed research paper by DESIM-Arch's Tatjana Djuric-Simovic and Dejan Simovic - "Back to the future - North Arm Cove Initiative" was presented at international SEEDS Conference (Sustainable Ecological Engineering Design for Society) in Bristol, UK.

A research paper has outlined a framework for planning, designing and developing sustainable communities based on Circular Economy principles.