Clarence Valley Independent, 18 April 2022:
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Environmental watchdog, Valley Watch, first began predicting flooding of Yamba, as a result of developing West Yamba, in about 1995; on Sunday May 21, the group will present a more than 1,000-signature petition to the mayor, Ian Tiley (or his proxy), calling for a moratorium on further filling and development approvals on the Yamba floodplain.
“Basically, the petition is demanding a well-designed master plan for West Yamba,” Valley Watch spokesperson Helen Tyas Tunggal said.
During the record rain that fell during February and March, many homes and properties were flooded for the first time, some of which were built within the past 20 years, theoretically above any threat of flooding.
Ms Tyas Tunggal couldn’t have been more succinct speaking with the Sydney Morning Herald in March 2007, when she expressed a view now apparent to many Yamba residents.
“When you raise the ground level, the displaced water has to go somewhere,” she said, when referring to the estimated 270,000 truckloads of fill needed to accommodate future West Yamba development.
“Other more established areas of town will flood as a result.”
As it happens, Cr Tiley, who was the mayor at the time, agreed.
“It may be that people who are flood-proof at the moment will be put at risk,” he said at a Clarence Valley Council (CVC) committee meeting, according to the SMH, when answering a question about filling the area.
“A great deal has happened since the council [first] decided to increase [the area’s] yield.
“From the middle of last year, a great awareness of climate change issues [has surfaced].
“It is a whole different ball game.”
According to the SMH, former CVC environment and planning director Rob Donges “acknowledged [there were] problems there”.
“It is flood-prone, low-lying land with a high water-table … we have never hidden the fact that if we were to start the process of West Yamba today there would be doubts as to whether council would proceed,” he told the SMH.
Come 2008/09, CVC adopted the Yamba Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan, which warns that “it is imperative that any additional development does not exacerbate the existing flood problem”.
The plan recommended, for example, that a master plan “must address water-related cumulative issues”, including “possible floodplain management measures … (if the development is to proceed) [including]: a) a floodway, b) a comprehensive flood evacuation strategy, and, c) [various] updated flood-related development controls.”
Meanwhile, there appears to be confusion among CVC staff about whether or not the Yamba Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan is relevant.
In a response to a detailed enquiry by Valley Watch, following the public meeting held at Treelands Drive Community Centre on April 29, 2021, staff wrote that the Yamba flood study and plan had “been superseded by the 2013 Grafton and Lower Clarence Flood Model and updated Grafton and Lower Clarence FRMP hence, the queries in relation to this study are no longer relevant”.
However, the Grafton and Lower Clarence document excludes Yamba and Iluka stating, “Flood-prone areas of the Lower Clarence River formerly administered by Maclean shire council from Brushgrove to Palmers Island including Maclean, and excluding Iluka and Yamba, which are the subject of separate studies.”
Valley Watch’s insistence that CVC develop a master plan for West Yamba, because “there are many unanswered questions” about how development is or should proceed, was partially addressed in a Notice of Motion by Cr Stephen Pickering at the April 26 CVC meeting.
“The community is heartened that the new council is taking an interest in the concerns of residents regarding development in West Yamba,” Ms Tyas Tunggal said.
However, she doubted that part 1 of the CVC resolution, to “support the creation of a West Yamba Masterplan document”, would be fulfilled and said part 2, to publish an “information brochure … to educate the community, does not go far enough and does little to address the current and growing problems”.
Meanwhile the mayor, Ian Tiley, told the Independent that a master plan would “absolutely” be prepared once the brochure is completed.
“Part 1 demonstrated a clear intent to create a West Yamba Master Plan, to guide sustainable development and infrastructure integrated with the greater Yamba township,” he said.
BACKGROUND
North Coast Voices
- THURSDAY, 1 APRIL 2021
The story of a little town in the Clarence Valley and a growing problem
POSTED BY CLARENCEGIRL
- MONDAY, 5 APRIL 2021
“The story of a little town in the Clarence Valley and a growing problem” - Part Two
POSTED BY CLARENCEGIRL
- COMMENT:
Anonymous said...
Dear Clarencegirl, you should send your blog on Yamba to all our non concerned councillors, and to Clarence Valley Council. Most people in this area live in denial, that is until the sh... hits the fan, then they whinge. Apathy seems to reign high in Clarence Valley Shire, and Yamba, and this council is sitting on it's hands. Your blogs are good and real. But how do you wake this council up, and make them represent and think! Cheers Yamba resident for 16 years,
5 APRIL 2021 AT 13:45
- TUESDAY, 16 OCTOBER 2012
West Yamba subdivision questioned
POSTED BY CLARRIE RIVERS
- TUESDAY,
21 APRIL 2009
POSTED BY CLARENCE GIRL
- SUNDAY, 31 MAY 2009
POSTED BY CLARENCE GIRL
- TUESDAY, 8 JANUARY 2008
The folly of allowing developments in flood-prone land
Persons associated with proposals to develop West Yamba would be well advised to take special note of a decision of the NSW Land and Environment Court.
In an article headed Court agrees climate-change risk rules out housing plan The Sydney Morning Herald (January 8, 2008) reports:
"Many may be pleased to know the Land and Environment Court can overturn not just a council decision but a ministerial one.
The court recently ruled invalid a concept plan approved by the Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, for a controversial residential subdivision and retirement complex at Sandon Point, on the coast near Wollongong. The action was brought by a resident, Jill Walker.
The court agreed the department should have considered the flooding risk from climate change as it was an aspect of the public interest that potentially had a bearing on the justice of the decision.
The decision is a win for residents who have been protesting for years against the development of the flood-prone 25-hectare site by Stockland Development and Anglican Retirement Villages.
Deacons Lawyers said councils would have to ensure risks from climate change in flood-constrained coastal areas had been addressed by developers and that they considered such risks in their decisions."
Comment:
The land at West Yamba is flood-prone. Allowing further development in the area will require fill being obtained from elsewhere in order to raise the area above designated ASL requirements. That may solve current problem associated with the West Yamba site but one doesn't have to be Einstein to understand that water which would normally find its way to this naturally occurring flood storage area in times of heavy rainfall will be diverted elsewhere. And just where is elsewhere? Think about it. Land that is currently occupied and considered flood free will not necessarily carry such a tag in the future.
Yes, further development at West Yamba will create a new set of winners (just think 'developers and their associates'), but there'll also be a crew of losers who'll be up the creek without paddles in times of high local rainfall and/or flooding that results from waters flowing downstream from the catchment area.
Clarence Valley Council should have this matter uppermost in its collective mind. So too, should Minister Frank Sartor and all others who will be called upon to give consideration to any hair-brained proposals to develop West Yamba.
Remember, the law attaches great significance to the concept of precedence. Hence, this decision of the Land and Environment Court has implications for West Yamba.
POSTED BY CLARRIE RIVERS
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