PUCV calls for planning rethink to manage climate risk

Peri Urban Councils Victoria (PUCV) has called for a new state-wide Flood Overlay to change the way the state manages risk from flood and inundation.
 
The call has been made in a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the 2022 Flood Event in Victoria, currently underway by the Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee.

PUCV Chair Cr Michael Leaney said Victorians had a love affair with the water, with nearly 20% of all Victorians choosing to live in coastal areas, however a combination of climate change and demand for new developments has highlighted the need to better manage future flood risk for our communities.
                                                                                                        
“The devastating flooding events of last year have really exposed the gaps in our state and local planning guidelines because flooding and coastal inundation occurs indiscriminately across local government and water catchment authority boundaries,” Cr Leaney said. 
 
“We know our communities are desirable places to live, so the pressure to further develop will continue to increase - the problem is that these desirable areas are the areas that are most at risk from flooding and inundation,” Cr Leaney said. 
 
“Unless there is a state-wide approach to carefully manage growth in these areas and prevent unsuitable development, more people will face the devastating impacts of floods and the clean-up bill will continue to grow for Local and State government and insurers.”

In the submission PUCV have highlighted that the Bushfire Management Overlay was successfully introduced by the State Government as a result of the Royal Commission into the 2009 Victorian Bushfires, delivering a more consistent and rigorous planning approach.

“Addressing the current piecemeal approach with a new state-wide Flood Overlay will help to reduce future risk to communities and ensure that developments do not occur on land that is subject to rising sea levels, flood and inundation in the future,” Cr Leaney concluded.