Posts Tagged ‘town planning’
In a landmark decision, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) recently reversed a decision to allow a property owner to subdivide and build on a beachside block, due to the likelihood of future sea level rise.
The owner of the Waratah Bay site was initially asked to prepare a coastal hazard vulnerability assessment. In that assessment the owner argued that given the property was within the bounds of the existing Waratah Bay settlement, where measures would most likely be taken to protect the settlement from sea level rise, the property would also benefit from this protection.
This argument was rejected by the VCAT.
“Ultimately, what the permit applicant is asking us to do is to approve a subdivision to allow a second dwelling in the knowledge that by 2070 (not even 2100 as specified by the Victorian Coastal Strategy 2008), the subject site is likely to have no access, as the beach would have receded to the existing road and could be flooded by repeat storm surges.”
With coastal planning regulations under the microscope, and local councils scrambling to develop climate change adaptation strategies, this ruling serves as a timely reminder to property developers and council alike, that, despite what some Federal politicians may argue, climate change is a very real problem.
