COUNCIL does not have a clear strategy for dealing with looming changes in development regulations brought about by concerns over climate change, says a developer.
Ian Larkman said Redland City Council was adopting new flood and storm tide levels for development applications.
The old level was 2.4 metres above high tide, including an 0.3 metre allowance for global warming. The new level is 3.1 metres above high tide.
“The main problem is that canal developments like Raby Bay were made using the old levels and the developers did not build up the land very much higher than 2.4 metres,” he said. “Therefore, nearly all canal developments are totally below the new 3.1 metre level.”
Mr Larkman said that in his conversations with council officers, they did not seem to have a strategy to deal with current developments.
He said he was not against the process but wondered what the situation would be with extensions and the impact on house prices.
“One crucial area of concern is that vacant land that may be between houses may not be able to be built on now,” he said.
Acting mayor Wendy Boglary said the draft mapping and provisions within the draft Redland City Plan would not preclude development on vacant land.
“Provisions are aimed at ensuring people are safe and infrastructure and new developments are designed to respond to predicted storm tide impacts,” she said.
“This will primarily be achieved by requiring the habitable floor levels of new developments to be built above the maximum predicted storm tide level in the year 2100.
“This approach recognises that development constructed today may remain in place for a long period of time. It is noted that the mapping accounts for a 0.8m increase in the mean sea level by the year 2100.”
Cr Boglary said council had consultants prepare storm tide inundation mapping in accordance with state requirements and used this information to generate mapping.
She said that during the public consultation period for the draft Redland City Plan, the community had questioned state assumptions and methodologies used to undertake storm tide hazard studies.
In response, council was reviewing all information to ensure it met community needs.
Mayor Karen Williams had written to the state government ... asking if it was possible to use alternative assumptions that better reflected community needs.
“The state government responded in unequivocal terms that neither of these approaches would be supported,” Cr Boglary said. “The state is enforcing a consistent policy approach across the entire state.”
She did not respond to questions about whether council or owners would bear legal responsibility for approvals at some point in the future.
Environment Minister Steven Miles, who has just launched the Built Environment and Infrastructure Sector Adaptation Plan and the Agriculture Sector Adaptation Plan and, said the aim was to support councils, town planners and developers to make their infrastructure as durable as possible in the face of climate change.
