Rebuild plans for Lismore
LISMORE City Council has officially revealed its preliminary plans to rebuild the towns that were destroyed by the catastrophic floods in February and March.
North and South Lismore will be depopulated, the CBD will be protected and a new commercial centre will be built to construct “armour” around Lismore’s business community.
Council will conduct a review into the Lismore Growth Management Strategy in a discussion paper designed to “agree on the strategic growth in the rebuilding of Lismore”.
The paper is headlined by government land swaps from flood plains, expanding the industrial precinct in Goonellabah and new medium-density zoning and increased height controls for development in flood-free sites.
The preliminary discussion paper will call for feasibility work to establish a new mixed-use precinct “on the golf course land in East Lismore”, ensuring housing affordability is part of the growth strategy and “fast-tracking infrastructure projects”.
It builds on the announcement of the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation by Premier Dominic Perrottet.
Following feedback from the community, a report with final recommendations council and comment.
The discussion paper places the mitigation of flood impacts on the CBD and the commitment to “depopulate” vulnerable areas as its main priorities in the short term.
Lismore City Council will advocate for a state and federal government funded land swap arrangement to allow residents to move to higher ground but remain close to existing social networks and jobs.
They will not force people to move, with those electing to stay set to be encouraged to invest in houseraising projects.
“New residential land release areas and higher density developments in existing residential areas unconstrained by flooding will need to be accelerated,” the discussion paper says.
Council will advocate for a federally funded reinsurance guarantee similar to that announced for North Queensland to provide additional certainty to CBD businesses.
“In the longer term (20-plus years) the building of a new flood-free commercial centre should be undertaken, with planning to commence in the short term,” the paper says.
The news comes before the first NSW Independent Flood Inquiry public meeting occurs at Southern Cross University on Tuesday. will be considered by circulated for further