After months of disagreements between architects and council planners, the Southern Joint Regional Planning panel voted unanimously to allow a towering hotel complex to go ahead at the top of Regent Street.

The 29-level hotel and apartment block - which will be the most prominent between Sydney and Melbourne - has a capital investment value of $66 million and has undergone significant design changes since it was first lodged in 2013.

At Thursday afternoon's meeting it took just 10 minutes for the panel members to wave it through, with chair Pam Allen saying it was good news for the city.

"We've had a couple of goes at this one, in terms of trying to make it an attractive, architecturally important building, and you can see today ... that the panel was happy, the community were happy and we now have a really exciting project that could launch in Wollongong," she said.

Applicant David Shalala, who has been trying to develop the Regent Street site for almost a decade, said it was a "great relief" to have the project approved.

He said it was not clear when construction would begin, as the delayed planning process has resulted in a "loss of momentum" with investors, however, he hoped to begin "ASAP".

The panel also signed off on the University of Wollongong's new post-graduate accommodation block, which is worth about $32 million and had hit a number of road blocks due to community concerns.

The university complex will house more than 260 students in 215 units at the eastern end of Northfields Avenue.

Community opposition, mostly over parking provisions and traffic generation from students' cars, had not abated at Thursday's meeting, with five representatives speaking against its approval. The public gallery audibly groaned when approval was given unanimously by panel members.

But Ms Allen said the university had done "a complete turn around" since it last went before the panel in May by increasing the number of car spaces for students, and other panel members noted that all their previous concerns had been addressed.

The approval was conditional on the university monitoring the use of the planned spaces for the building's residents and making this information publicly available.

UOW's chief administrative officer, Melva Crouch, said construction would begin shortly.

"The partners that we have are pretty much ready to start going now on the post-graduate building, we need that online for the start of session in 2017 so we're on a roll on this," she said.

Ms Crouch also said she believed Thursday's successful JRPP process would help smooth the way for a new 800-bed undergraduate accommodation block which is due for consideration later this year.

"The first time we took this project to JRPP, we were asked to come back with a consolidated transport plan that was going to cover both developments," she said.

"So we are very pleased that our proposal has got through on that process because that sets us up for a much smoother pass through for the next block."

She said the undergraduate block needed to be complete for the start of the 2018 academic year.

kmcilwain@fairfaxmedia.com.au