BUILDING UNITS IN FLOOD-PRONE LAND BRINGS FORWARD UNCOMMON PROBLEMS
The floods of 2011 were a natural disaster that affected many residents, businesses and the broader community. That natural flood event would influence the ambitions of Brisbane’s WECA and the people of Brisbane never thought it would ever head in this direction though.
“City Council has not ruled out demolishing houses on higher-ground in a off-set deal done for a developer on a flood-prone site in West End” said WECA President, Dr Erin Evans.
“This is an outlandish situation. The developer wants to avoid the mandated publicly accessible space on their site so they can build more units in the danger zone.”
In the past, commonsense in planning dictated that many of our city’s parks and open green space were located in these flood-prone locations. Then we built our homes on the higher-ground. The current speculation is that we demolish safe homes for parks and build more units in harm’s way down on the flood-plane.
Dr Evans commented: “WECA understands that some developers believe they can lobby their way out Council planning codes but surely commonsense must be returned to Brisbane’s planning and approvals process?”
WECA would be most pleased if Cr Amanda Cooper, Planning Committee Chair, steps-in to bring a little clear-thinking to the episode.
“Leave the parks and green-space in the flood-prone locations and leave the houses on the high-ground.” suggested President Erin Evans.