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MASTER PLAN DA 2023/0711 Click on all images to enlarge
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Clarence Valley Independent,
20 December 2023:
A
development application DA 2023/0711 for a $6.65 million 95 lot
manufactured home estate at South Grafton is currently being assessed
by Clarence Valley Council and submissions from the public are
invited.
The
DA lodged by John Codling is for the demolition of existing buildings
at 252 to 298 Rushforth Road and construction of a 95 dwelling
manufactured home estate, a community building, a 25m by 10m swimming
pool, children’s play area, community gardens, recreation areas and
community title subdivision.
The
Statement of Environmental Effects SEE, lodged with the DA states the
95 home manufactured housing estate will take up 8.57 hectares of the
11.54-hectare property, with proposed residential sites varying from
282 square metres to 450 square metres.
The
Manufactured Home estate will be located on the southern and eastern
portions of the property, with the northern and western areas
remaining unimpacted by construction.
“The
proposed large community clubhouse, centrally located at the entrance
to the development, will act as an indoor and outdoor meeting place
for residents of the estate and their visitors,” the SEE states.
“The
proposed dwelling sites and community facilities will be set in a
landscaped environment supported by recreational facilities.”......
Sounds
like low income retirees heaven, doesn't it?
Until
one realises that an existing wide drainage channel easement dissects
the planned manufactured home estate and discharges into what appears
to be marshland and creek. Which sets the mind a-wondering.
From
there it is easy to discover that the entire manufactured home estate
on that lot will be directly in the path of the maximum possible
Clarence
River flood
(based
on probable
maximum
precipitation)
according to Clarence Valley Council 2022 flood modelling.
Clarence River very dark blue, 1
in 100 probability in any given year for a flood event is coloured
darker blue and, the full range of a maximum probability flood
coloured light blue with est. 11.5 ha DA site in dark red.
IMAGE: https://maps.clarence.nsw.gov.au/intramaps910/
In
addition the "Stormwater
Management Plan & Preliminary Flood Assessment"
(17 October 2023) at
Page 10 supports
this view and adds another dimension:
2.
The subject site is subject to Clarence River flooding during an
‘extreme event’. This is limited to
the northeastern portion of the site (Figure 4).....
5.
The entire site is subject to flooding during a Probable Maximum
Flood (PMF) event (Figure 8). Depth
and velocity information is not available.
6.
Site inundation due to 1:100 storm event runoff from the Rushforth
Reservoir (Figure 9) is similar
but of a lesser extent than what is mapped as fluvial inundation
(Figure 5). Nine lots are
affected by shallow (<0.2m)
inundation (Figure 11).
7.
A Rushforth Reservoir dam break would inundated a large component of
the northeastern site precinct
(Figure 10). The inundation depth in the northeastern part of the
site where the lots are
is generally below 0.5 metres (Figure 12), but it increases to 0.8
metres along the eastern site
boundary (past the lots).
The developer cannot fail to be aware that the site will experience everything from episodic, low-level nuisance flooding from the creek to a probable maximum full inundation from the river 13.6-13.7m in height potentially sending on a conservative calculation 0.6-3.8m or somewhere between 2-12 feet of rushing water though the manufactured home estate.
Bottom line is that the next time climate change throws a record breaking Clarence River flood at valley communities, South Grafton will possibly have another 190+ people to evacuate to higher ground - as is advised at Page 18 of the developer's document "Stormwater Management Plan & Preliminary Flood Assessment".
Not
sounding quite as attractive now, does it?
SEE
FULL DETAILS AT:
https://cvc-web.t1cloud.com/T1PRDefault/WebApps/eProperty/P1/eTrack/eTrackApplicationDetails.aspx?r=CVC.P1.WEBGUEST&f=%24P1.ETR.APPDET.VIW&ApplicationId=DA2023%2f0711