By Bass Coast Shire Council Mayor Cr Michael Whelan
The RACV Resort at Inverloch is one of this region’s largest employers and contributes greatly to our local economy by using local suppliers and attracting thousands of tourists every year.
This is why we welcome their decision to seek to invest more than $13 million to expand their resorts to bring even more tourists to the region.
But when the planning application came before Council last week, 16 August, the West Gippsland Catchment Authority - which is simply doing their job - objected to the proposed development to build an extra 44 accommodation rooms and 39 extra car spaces at the site in Inverloch.
The Catchment Management Authority advised that the development would “increase the amount of people and property exposed to the flood hazard” because the plans do not allow safe vehicle evacuation from the site during a flood event.
“The proposal relies on a low-level access without an alternative ingress/egress point, which in a major flooding event would present unsafe conditions for visitors, vehicles and emergency services personnel,” the authority warned.
This put Council in an invidious position because to ignore a water authority’s advice and simply approve the plans could expose Council – and therefore ratepayers – to potential legal challenges if flooding occurred in the future. This is why Council has followed Melbourne Water’s advice recently and rejected some landholders’ plans for homes due to the risk of rising sea levels.
Rather than rejecting the RACV planning permit and the investment, Council came up with a solution and a potential way forward which was to approve the plans but only on the condition that RACV can satisfy the Catchment Management Authority and address the risk of climate-induced sea level rises and flooding in its plans.
There is a lot at stake in this decision.
We have been arguing for years that the coastal erosion and rising sea levels issues that Bass Coast is confronting are too big for one council. Climate change-induced rising sea levels and erosion are an issue for all coastal councils. We just happen to be one of the first to be significantly impacted.
The planning framework has highlighted the lack of clarity that currently exists for landholders and developers seeking to build on the coast due to the confusion around coastal flooding rules.
Current Victorian Government policy recommends that coastal communities should plan for an average anticipated sea level rise of at least 0.8m by the year 2100. The RACV development was required to be assessed on the risk of a 1-in-100-year flooding event.
Council has been strongly advocating for urgent intervention by the State Government to clarify climate change-induced coastal inundation planning. We have expressed our willingness to work with the State on this matter.
The planning rules in flood-prone areas are no longer fit for purpose and they require an all-of-state approach.
