The City of Gold Coast Council has resolved to prepare and endorse a ‘Temporary Local Planning Instrument No.5 (Minimum Land Above Designated Flood Level and Residential Risk Reduction) 2017’ (TLPI No 5) and have formally requested the Minister to further endorse. This proposed TLPI has been requested to apply to all applications yet to be in the Decision Making Stage as of 8 December 2017.

While there may be some merit in revising the flood provisions of the City Plan, the way in which the TLPI has been prepared will result in severe ramifications being felt across whole of the City. The TLPI is currently worded to prevent any ability to increase residential density on effected properties resulting in considerable impact on the valuations of these sites.

This revision to the City Plan will prevent residential development from occurring on land that is exposed to either or both of the following flood hazards:

(a) Flood inundation depth exceeding 0.6 metres; and

(b) Flood water velocity exceeding 0.8 metres per second.

Given that there are several thousand properties across the City subject to flood inundation of 0.6 metres the impact of this TLPI being adopted in its current form is likely to impact upon properties in the following areas – Jacobs Well, Paradise Point, Runaway Bay, Labrador, Surfers Paradise, Carrara, Merrimac, Broadbeach Waters, Mermaid Waters, Burleigh Waters, Tallebudgera, Currumbin Waters.

A link to the City of Gold Coast Council’s ‘Temporary Local Planning Instrument No.5 (Minimum Land Above Designated Flood Level and Residential Risk Reduction) 2017’ is available by clicking here.
A link to the City of Gold Coast Council’s ‘City Plan Interactive Mapping (Version 4)’ that shows the current extent of flooding across the city is available by clicking here.
Note that due to anticipated sea level rise, the scale of flood effected properties currently identified is likely to expand subsequently increasing the scale of potential impacts the proposed TLPI will have across the City.

For additional information to determine if this change could effect your property, contact us by clicking here.