Gold Coast flood plain development stopped by temporary planning law

Council has made a major move which has major implications for planned development on the Gold Coast’s largest flood plain.

DEVELOPMENT on parts of the Gold Coast’s largest flood plain has been stopped with the council getting approval for a temporary planning law.

The Bulletin in November last year revealed the council had received at least nine development applications which could see 3105 dwellings built in high to extreme flood areas.

Some applications had been approved which allowed for platforms to be built to protect residents, and developers had to organise flood emergency plans.

The developments were in the Guragunbah floodplain, at 22kms long and 7kms wide, covering 1836 hectares, which gives the city a huge water storage area in cyclonic events protecting suburbs from Southport to Burleigh.

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Minister for State Development Cameron Dick. Picture: AAP.

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A report to a full council meeting today confirmed State Development Minister Cameron Dick had approved a temporary local planning instrument which would give council officers two years to work on flood overlay maps.

The report said the TLPI would cease to have effect on August 28, 2020.

Mr Dick in a letter to council said planning officers from council and the government in the past 12 months had liaised extensively about “the complexities associated with development” in the flood plain particularly where people and properties were at risk.

“I now expect the council to expedite a major amendment to the Gold Coast City Plan 2016 for my approval to commence prior to the TLPI expiring,” he wrote.