Redland council gives green light to flood plain project, months after wrangle with state over housing strategy

A bayside council, in a long-running wrangle with the state government over its housing strategy, has approved a housing project on a flood plain.

Hundreds attend one of the services at Champions Church, Thornlands, which is concerned about an approved housing project on flood plains next door. Picture: Supplied

A bayside council, which has been in a long-running wrangle with the state government over its housing strategy, has approved a housing project on a flood plain.

Redland City Council gave Carina developer Jabr No2 approval to build houses on land bordering Eprapah Creek, inside the council’s flood and storm tide hazard overlay.

Under the approval, the developer will have to build up the low-density residential site by 2m and construct a retaining wall along the perimeter before five dwellings can be built on Beveridge Rd, Thornlands.

The project got the green light, less than eight months after the council was lectured about flooding approvals by State Recovery Coordinator Major General Jake Ellwood, who visited flood affected councils last year.

Part of the 6000 sqm site, between Champions Church and Faith Lutheran College, flooded last year with neighbours and residents lodging more than 25 letters of protest with the council over the plans.

The Champions Church back yard during some rain last year. Faith Lutheran College in the background. Picture: Contributed

Next door neighbour at Champions Church senior pastor Grant Cunningham said the approval was “asking for trouble” with at least two of the proposed homes to be susceptible to flooding.

“I have been on this land for 15 years and the bottom part of our block floods and we are not allowed to build on it for that reason,” Mr Cunningham said.

“We have flood mitigation measures in place and our dam will collect run-off but it would not cope with tonnes of cascading water overflowing from a 2m-high retaining wall.

“We use the back of our church site for carparking when we have more than 80 people attend our services and that will be directly under the housing site.

“I believe this will seriously affect the church property with run-off from the new estate.”

The church uses its back yard for parking. Picture: Supplied

Mr Cunningham said he was also concerned any new next door tenants would lodge noise complaints about the church’s Sunday morning services or customers using the free food bank.

He said he was also bracing for complaints about amplified music from the church’s youth group evening sessions which ended at 8.15pm.

One of the flood maps included in the council report showing the project site in red. Picture: RCC agenda

Maps submitted in a flood impact assessment by civil engineering experts CWD Group revealed two of the proposed six lots would suffer from minor flooding from Eprapah Creek.

However, the expert report said the housing lots would remain “trafficable” during the worst type of predicted flood event, which has a 1 per cent probability of occurring in a year.

The expert report also said backfilling in the flood zone would be minimal and result “in no actionable nuisance”.

“Earthworks are proposed within the flood-prone land, which has been modelled to result in minor changes to the inundation characteristics outside of the subject site.”

An aerial shot of the site outlined in blue with a flood overlay in purple showing impacts on Faith Luthern College on the left and the Champions Church on the right.

Redland councillor Lance Hewlett said the average size of the blocks was 800 sqm and the project would enhance the area.

“The other thing I like about this development is that people will not be parking on the street and will be driving down an easement,” he said.

“The officers have recommended approving this and I’m concerned that if this went to court that council’s chances of winning would be low as I don’t believe council would have a leg to stand on.”

However, councillor for the area Paul Golle slammed the approval and said it was irresponsible, dangerous and not in line with other parts of the street zoned for community purposes, low-density residential, or environmental protection.

“This will result in a non-functional neighbourhood with these houses jammed on to a block that floods in an area predominantly for community purposes,” he said.

“But the worst aspect of this development is the flood impact, which was assessed by hydrologists not the council and only for this project.

“I believe upstream modifications to land will only exacerbate flooding on properties downstream.”