The Department of Planning has placed an environmental assessment of the firm's proposed move to Sylvester Ave in the Unanderra industrial estate on public exhibition.

The public has until December 14 to comment on the plans.

Development manager for the Cookson relocation, Shaun Prince, said the company expected to have its plans approved by the end of the year.

"Building would then start early next year and we would aim for Cookson to start at the beginning of 2011 in the new location."

Cookson Plibrico sold its Sandon Point site to Anglican Retirement Villages (ARV) for $9 million around three years ago.

ARV proposes to build on the site a four-storey residential aged care facility with up to 120 beds, three-storey apartment buildings with 250 independent living units and community facilities.

The concept plan was approved in 2006. It has since been the subject of legal challenges, culminating in a High Court decision in March refusing to allow campaigner Jill Walker to appeal the approval.

The department is awaiting detailed plans from ARV before assessing a development application for stage one of the village, the Ocean View Precinct.

ARV was unavailable to comment, but Northern Illawarra Residents' Action Group (NIRAG) representative Alex Peterson said the group would keep fighting to limit development and save the turpentine forest.

NIRAG spokeswoman Jill Merrin said ARV's proposal extended beyond the boundaries recommended by the commission of inquiry.

"There are still very strong feelings among people in the area who have been fighting this for years," she said.

Both were also disappointed jobs would be lost from the northern suburbs with Cookson's departure.

But Mr Prince said the company's existing operations were inconsistent with plans for Sandon Point. He said the company was investing $11 million in the new site at Unanderra.

"It is good news Cookson has committed to staying in the Illawarra," Mr Prince said.

"There were options to move out of the area or out of the country to somewhere like China. But we are retaining over 100 jobs in the Illawarra."

Mr Prince said the new site would consolidate Cookson Plibrico operations from across Wollongong and would provide the capacity to expand production over the next 20 years.