YAMBA STATE OF PLAY: an example of state and local government wilful blindness that continues to this very day

A view of the lower section of Carrs Drive,
West Yamba Urban Release Area
IMAGE: Clarence Valley Independent, 7 May 2023

The original 127ha West Yamba Urban Release Area (WYURA) sits on a 690ha natural flood storage plain. 

This was an established fact in the early 1990s when urban settlement of this area was first mooted. It was still an established fact in 1995 when the local council adopted its Land Use Strategy. 

It remained an established fact when WYURA first came into effect in 2010 with amendments to the Maclean LEP 2001 allowing the amalgamated Clarence Valley Council to house between 2,000-2,500 people on flood liable land within a reduced 121ha urban release area.

It continued as an established fact in 2015 when Clarence Valley Council confirmed its ongoing intention to allow more dwellings per hectare via manufactured housing estates and therefore more people to be settled on this floodplain within the larger Lower Clarence River floodplain. 

Something then Clarence Valley Mayor and current NSW Nationals MLA for Clarence Richie Williamson called "good news for local development". Going on to say; "There's between 950 to 1000 lots and other land owners in the area will be moving forward with their developments. It's a massive development." 

It was an established fact in the years from 2015 to the present day, during which Clarence Valley Council received at least 9 largescale and 2 small scale subdivision applications on this flood liable land.

Look at that photograph again. At best, even with planned landfill this area will see 2,000+ men, women and children isolated in their homes when the road system is cut off by flood waters. 

Literally many hundreds of these residents will be retirees - with sometimes high levels of physical vulnerabilities. It is hard to see how emergency services, in a Yamba containing est. 7,000-8,000 residents by the time West Yamba is almost fully developed, will be able to cope during inundation caused by high rainfall events combining with a large riverine floods or heavy ocean storm surges.

The property developers don't care what the future holds, so it's more than time for Clarence Valley Council and the NSW Minns Government to enter emergency discussions concerning an immediate moratorium of further development in the West Yamba Urban Release Area.

In 2023 is Clarence Valley Council preparing to walk away from a drowning town?

Aerial view of a section of Yamba township precinct during flooding in 2022. IMAGE: Clarence Valley Independent

On Tuesday, 18 March 2023 Clarence Valley Council held its Ordinary Monthly Meeting.

Officially present at that meeting according to the Minutes were:

Cr Greg Clancy [Deputy Mayor], Cr Bill Day, Cr Peter Johnstone, Cr Debrah Novak, Cr Steve Pickering, Cr Jeff Smith, Cr Ian Tiley [Mayor], Cr Karen Toms and Cr Allison Whaites, General Manager (Laura Black), Director – Corporate & Community (Alex Moar), Director – Environment & Planning (Adam Cameron), Director – Works & Civil (Jamie Fleeting) and Minutes Secretary (Lee Boon).

The fourth item of business for Council In The Chamber that day was the following Notice of Motion:

Item 06.23.004 Rezoning Lands on West Yamba Floodplain

Note: Crs Tiley and Johnstone left the Chamber ahead of this motion at 2:08pm, having asserted a non-pecuniary conflict of interest existed in relation to Item 06.23.004. Both noting sitting members on Northern Joint Regional Planning Panel. Under s6.1 of the Code of Meeting Practice, the Deputy Chair became the chair in the Mayor’s absence.

MOTION

Clancy/Smith

That Council:

1. note the legal advice tabled at the February Ordinary Council Meeting that compensation would not be

payable in the event that the Department of Planning and Environment, on the recommendation of

Council, was to approve a rezoning of lands in the West Yamba Urban Release Area (WYURA) from

residential R1 to C2 or a mix of C2 and RU2 depending on the results of the planning study;

2. prepare a planning proposal for submission to the Department of Planning and Environment requesting

that the vacant land, which do not have development approvals for subdivision, in the West Yamba

Urban Release Area (WYURA) be rezoned from Residential (R1) to Conservation (C2) zoning or a mix

of Conservation (C2) and Rural (RU2) based on the impacts of further development on the environment

and the risk to human life and property from future flooding.

Voting recorded as follows

For: Clancy, Smith

Against: Day, Novak, Pickering, Toms, Whaites

The Motion was put and declared LOST

[my yellow highlighting]

To say that the writer of this post is disappointed beyond measure at this outcome is an understatement.

Those names listed as voting down the re-zoning motion, Bill Day, Debrah Novak, Steve Pickering, Karen Toms and Allison Waites, should be noted for future reference by Yamba residents & ratepayers when - as landfill proceeds apace -  the next inevitable major Lower Clarence River flood arrives.

An alternate Motion in Item 06.23.004 was put up by Cr. Day & seconded by Cr. Smith and lost. That particular risible motion all but issued an invitation to the NSW Nationals to turn any rezoning of the West Yamba Urban Release Area into both a regional and state brawl along partisan political lines in which property developers would have eagerly participated. It was voted down by Crs. Clancy, Novak, Toms, Whaites.

BACKGROUND

SUMMARY

Approved development of the Yamba floodplain under the provisions of the West Yamba Urban Release Area (WYURA) planning approval has resulted in large amounts of fill being transported to the site, particularly along Gardeners Road, Yamba Road and Carrs Drive. The constant truck movements (1 every 10 minutes), has caused great consternation among a number of Yamba residents. The large amount of fill would appear to be exacerbating localized flooding around the Carrs Drive roundabout and the area surrounding it. There is also concern that the large amount of fill is affecting, and will increasing affect, the drainage of the area, adversely affecting low lying residences and the environment.

PROPOSED MOTION

That Council:

1. note the legal advice tabled at the February Ordinary Council Meeting that compensation would not be payable in the event that the Department of Planning and Environment, on the recommendation of Council, was to approve a rezoning of lands in the West Yamba Urban Release Area (WYURA) from residential R1 to C2 or a mix of C2 and RU2 depending on the results of the planning study;

2. prepare a planning proposal for submission to the Department of Planning and Environment requesting that the vacant land, which do not have development approvals for subdivision, in the West Yamba Urban Release Area (WYURA) be rezoned from Residential (R1) to Conservation (C2) zoning or a mix of Conservation (C2) and Rural (RU2) based on the impacts of further development on the environment and the risk to human life and property from future flooding.

The eighth item of business at that 18 April ordinary council meeting was a development application for a 6 lot subdivision of an existing parcel of land in West Yamba Urban Release Area, lodged on behalf of a commercial fisher-cum-property developer. 

It was refused as per COUNCIL RESOLUTION - 07.23.050

Clancy/Johnstone

That council refuse Development Application SUB2021/0045 for the following reasons covered by

Section 4.15 of the Environmental, Planning and Assessment Act 1979:

a) The land being a wetland (Swamp Forest of Swamp Oak) making it unsuitable for the proposed development;

b) The nine submissions raised major concerns about the potential for flooding, impacts of stormwater runoff and clearing of natural vegetation.

c) The likely impacts of the development on the natural environment;

d) Impact on areas of C2 zoning for some infrastructure.

Voting recorded as follows

For: Clancy, Day, Johnstone, Pickering, Smith, Tiley

Against: Novak, Toms, Whaites

DISCLAIMER: The author of this post is a Yamba resident living alone in a single storey dwelling in a street adjoining a 20 year-old 6.65ha landfill comprising est. 90,000 cubic metres of river dredge & soil. The street is regularly cut off by riverine floodwater, or a combination of floodwater and storm water, preventing access to the town's nominal evacuation centre. The author has no independent means of leaving the town if residents are advised to do so ahead of a large flood front. In 2022 a small number of houses within this short street experienced flooding.

And the expansion of inappropriate urban development on a Northern NSW high risk coastal flood plain continues apace in 2023.....

Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) now has Development Application SUB2023/0001 before it as PPSNTH-195.

A 284 lot subdivision on Lot 47 DP 751395 at 52-54 Miles Street, Yamba NSW, with a capital investment value of $48,458,741.

Composed of 277 low density residential lots, 1 medium density residential development lot, 1 commercial development lot, 1 low density development lot, 3 drainage reserve lots and 1 open space reserve lot on the est. 21.25ha lot.

This DA was lodged with Clarence Valley Council on 18 January and referred to NRPP on 30 January 2023.

It appears to be the second stage of the urban development of Lots 46 & 47 by Kahuna No 1 Pty Ltd, a property development corporation. Stage 1 is already in the process of landfilling.

Stage 1 and proposed Stage 2 now before the NRPP stretch from Carrs Drive in the west to Golding Street in the east, with Miles Street forming the northern boundary and a common property line forming the southern boundary.

These two lots are 42.5ha of the remaining natural flood storage area in Yamba which has a potential to flood to a height range of 1.6-2.0m in years when the Lower Clarence River floods and, the filling of the lots to a height above 1 in 100 flood levels will inevitably force storm & river waters onto adjoining and adjacent residential land causing it to flow into residential streets further afield.

There is one certainty with this development application - with the exception of the two local government representatives on the Northern Regional Planning Panel - the issues of climate change, changing flood behaviours and an inadequate, badly thought though emergency evacuation plan for Yamba township, will receive only lipservice consideration. Because the Perrottet Coalition Government in Sydney still insists on urban development across high risk floodplains and the Clarence Valley's retiring Nationals state member and his replacement candidate will inevitably continue playing the game of mates rather than genuinely representing the town's population.

Is Clarence Valley Council finally beginning to grapple with the need to limit development on the Clarence River floodplain?

 

Clarence Valley Mayor Ian Tiley         Deputy Mayor Greg Clancy

      IMAGES: Clarence Valley Independent

Clarence Valley Independent, 20 December 2022:

Clarence Valley Council (CVC) will seek legal opinion to see if compensation will be liable if vacant land that doesn’t have development application approval at West Yamba is rezoned by the NSW Planning Minister – a move that would limit further development.

Deputy Mayor Greg Clancy put forward the motion at the December 13 CVC meeting concerning land in the West Yamba Urban Release Area WYURA, which is predicted to increase the population of Yamba by 2000 people when development is complete.

Cr Clancy said planning approvals in Wyura requiring large amount of fill would appear to be exacerbating localised flooding around the Carrs Drive roundabout and the area surrounding it.

Following the impact of the 2022 floods, which saw Yamba cut off for several days, there is also concern that the large amount of fill is affecting, and will increasingly affect the drainage of the area, adversely affecting low lying residences and the environment.

Cr Karen Toms asked Cr Clancy whether he knew that the General Manager had already sought legal advice before he put the motion forward.

“I was aware that the Mayor had asked the General Manager to seek legal advice, I wasn’t aware that it had actually been done,” he said.

Cr Clancy said with all the issues going on in the Yamba area, council was now in a position to understand what we can do or can’t do in terms of development on the floodplain.

“We’ve had the Prime Minister and we’ve had the Premier both stating that there should be no more development on the floodplain, he said.

“However, to date we haven’t received any official notice that there’s legislation being prepared, or passed, or whatever, to do that.

“In the interim we need to determine councils’ position in relation to development on the floodplain and West Yamba is our largest area where we have potential development on the floodplain.

“All this motion is doing is seeing whether council or the ratepayers would be liable if we go down the path of applying for a rezoning of land which has been zoned under the Wyura as residential, back to rural, and or a mixture maybe of rural and conservation, because there’s some important conservation areas in that area.

“Once we get the legal opinion, council would be in a much better position to consider what action we want to take.

“If we put a rezoning application in, we would need to know if the council and the ratepayers would be liable to any compensation.”

Mayor Ian Tiley said he and General Manager, Laura Black had discussed the matter a number of times and council was awaiting legal advice on rezoning.

Cr Steve Pickering said he would be supporting the motion as the community wanted to see action not just in Yamba, but on the floodplain generally.

“This is a question that has been asked many times of me and I think it’s prudent for us as a council to actually seek legal advice,” he said.

Cr Karen Toms said she would not be supporting the motion as it was ‘a what if question’.

“To me it’s a speculation in itself because we’re asking a lawyer to say well if the government decides to come in and change the zoning of privately owned land will we need to pay compensation,” she said.

“I would rather see this put on hold until we actually get the information back.”

Cr Bill Day said he believed the motion endorsed the actions of the Mayor and the General Manager to seek legal advice on rezoning land at West Yamba.

In the motion put forward by Cr Greg Clancy and seconded by Cr Jeff Smith council resolved to seek a legal opinion as to:

1. Whether compensation becomes liable when and if the NSW Planning Minister was to rezone vacant lands that have not had DA approval for development on the Yamba floodplain (WYURA ) from R1 General Residential to RU2 Rural landscape and C2 Environmental Conservation zonings at Council’s request, and

2. Whether compensation becomes liable if land previously approved for the importation of fill was to be similarly rezoned;

3. Whether there are any other legal implications of such an action.

The motion was carried 7-2 and supported by all councillors except Cr Karen Toms and Cr Allison Whaites.