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1300 366 244Wellington Shire Council identifies land affected by flooding, and plans for and manages the potential coastal impacts of climate change.
State Planning Policy (Clause 13 - Environmental Risks) requires Council to identify land affected by flooding in the Wellington Planning Scheme. These issues are particularly important in the Wellington Shire given the extensive areas of the municipality which are subject to riverine and coastal flooding.
In terms of existing areas subject to flooding, the Land Subject to Inundation Overlay and Floodway Overlay are currently applied to flood prone land in the municipality through mapping contained within the Wellington Planning Scheme. You can determine if either of these Overlays currently affect your land by generating a free Planning Property Report through the state government’s Department of Transport and Planning.
When a Planning Permit is required by these Overlays, Council relies on the specialist technical advice of the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) as the local floodplain manager.
The WGCMA provides referral advice to Council on individual Planning Permit applications, which will typically result in matters such as specified heights of building floor levels on any approved Planning Permit and associated plans.
Prior to lodging a Planning Permit application (and/or purchasing land), free flood advice can be obtained directly from the WGCMA website.
State Planning Policy (Clause 13 - Environmental Risks) requires Council to plan for and manage the potential coastal impacts of climate change. Various tools are available to better understand potential climate change risks, such as rising sea levels. For example, the website links below allow potential sea level rise risks to be shown at a local level.
More specifically, in March 2008 a report titled Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Implications: Ninety Mile Beach and Lake Reeve and Honeysuckles to Paradise Beach was completed (please refer to attachment below).
In 2014, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning also completed the Gippsland Lakes/90 Mile Beach Local Coastal Hazard Assessment Project as one of four pilot studies prepared across Victoria.
In response to this information, when coastal development is approved Council may require the Planning Permit holder to prepare a Climate Change Response Plan (CCRP). When a condition of a planning permit requires a CCRP to be prepared, the guidelines (below) should be used as a reference for its preparation.
Upon the satisfactory completion of the CCRP, Council will endorse the CCRP and require it to be complied with on an ongoing basis via a Section 173 Agreement under the Planning and Environment Act 1987.