FLOOD PAIN
State warned model will send insurance premiums soaring
NEW city flood mapping could put future stages of the light rail at risk and drive up home insurance premiums by thousands of dollars, a detailed submission from town planners to the State Government warns.
The RACQ said the mapping would influence insurance premiums.
However, council planning committee chairman Councillor Cameron Caldwell said: “Council will not support development in areas where it is considered there is a significant risk to people and property. Our floodplains provide essential flood storage and open space for our city and need to be protected for that purpose.”
NEW city flood mapping could put future stages of the light rail at risk and drive up home insurance premiums by thousands of dollars, a detailed submission to the State Government warns.
Correspondence from leading town planners to State Development Minister Cameron Dick also predicts a development retreat from the coast as vast tracts of land are deemed flood prone.
The Bulletin has obtained the lengthy submission to the minister, sent after the Gold Coast City Council updated its flooding overlay maps on its website, showing most of the coastline under water in a onein-a-hundred-year event.
These models, also known as Q100, are used to help shape town planning policy which in turn affects rules for development, insurance policies and land values.
Separate complaints from residents in feedback to the City Plan back the submission by the Zone Planning Group, headed by respected planner and director David Ransom.
“While acknowledging that council has every right to amend flood levels in response to the most recent flooding and climate information, our principal complaint is council has not prepared a publicly available technical report which demonstrates how particular Q100 flood levels were determined,” Mr Ransom wrote. “And hence there is no way
of independently verifying whether council actions are correct, let alone reasonable.
“Given the importance of this matter, we believe it is essential a technical background report is produced and made publicly available and contend that the public advertising process undertaken by council is incomplete and invalid because this has not been done.”
The Zone Planning Group warned that:
• A 75cm increase in the Q100 level (a one-in-a-hundred-years flood) will have a “significantly adverse effect on the financial interests of thousands of residents in Burleigh Heads, Palm Beach and Currumbin”.
• Areas of these suburbs will be “practically undevelopable” if the new mapping is rubber stamped by the Government.
• This will prevent an “intensified population catchment” being created west of the Gold Coast Hwy to support the proposed light rail extension to Coolangatta.
• The council failed to consider the impact on insurance policies which could increase from $2000 annually to $8000 where flood events occurred.
• The council is “effectively advocating a retreat strategy” in the Tallebudgera and Currumbin Creek catchments.
• Public consultation should recommence with the necessary background reporting made for an independent review.
• Information sessions should be held at Palm Beach, Burleigh and Currumbin to explain how the changes were arrived at, and the consequences.
The group said the council, in preparing the flood maps, failed to acknowledge a 15month investigation of “wave set-up and storm tide” at Tallebudgera and Currumbin, which was yet to be completed.
“Council are approaching flooding issues in the city in a piecemeal and reactive manner (rather) than a holistic manner,” Mr Ransom wrote.
“Many flooding issues are interrelated and they should be reviewed as one exercise, not as many smaller exercises which are not co-ordinated.”
Planners maintained an example of this was the council’s recent move to prevent residential development on elevated podiums in flood-affected areas. A council source said planning changes that prevented developments on podiums in flood-prone areas were designed to protect residents.
Mr Ransom declined to comment yesterday, but the Bulletin is aware of other submissions by community stakeholders voicing concerns.
Council Planning Committee chairman Councillor Cameron Caldwell told the Bulletin yesterday: “Council will not support development in areas where it is considered there is a significant risk to people and property. Our floodplains provide essential flood storage and open space for our city and need to be protected for that purpose.”
A State Development spokesman said the department was aware of Mr Ransom’s concerns about technical reports that supported the council’s flood overlay mapping for the City Plan.