Nsw to block risky coastal projects

The NSW Government has vowed to step in and stop developments approved by local councils in coastal areas likely to be affected by climate Change...

Guidelines are being drafted by the NSW Government for local councils so they can prepare for a predicted 580,000 people expected to move to the NSW Coast in the next 25 years.

Around 380,000 dwellings will need to be built to house them, a public hearing into environmental impacts on Australia's coastal zone was told in Sydney.

Development applications should not be approved in areas where scientists predict sea levels will rise by 40cm by 2050 and by up to 90cm by 2100, said Simon Smith from the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change.

Mr Smith, who is Deputy Director General of the department's Climate Change Policy and Programs Group, said communities needed to get used to the idea that a beachfront home with a low elevation, or in a flood prone area, was not a good investment.

"And that is a big Change because that has been the sacred cow in the property market," he said.

Richard Pearson, Executive Director of rural and regional planning at the Department of Planning, said he was concerned how few people realised how much valuable land and property would be affected by climate Change.

Sites already affected include an existing development at Belongil Beach, Byron Bay, where serious erosion is threatening houses.

Mr Pearson said if councils disregarded state Government advice on where not to build in future, developments would be prevented from going ahead.

"If they choose to ignore that then we, the Department of Planning, just wouldn't bother approving (a development application)," he said.

"We've got to make sure it is not an absolute black ban on development everywhere on the Coast because there are some types of development that might be able to withstand sea level rise," he said.

Source: www.theage.com.au