Dailan Pugh, Byron Bay
Byron Shire Council currently has on exhibition proposed planning controls for their Byron Bay Town Centre Plan. Given that Council has declared a climate emergency, I am disappointed that they have not recognised the precarious position of the town centre owing to rising seas and duly accounted for this in their planning.
The centre of town is only 2m above mean sea level, and far less during high tides, and sea levels are rising fast owing to climate change.
Owing to the accelerated melting of ice masses at the poles there is now a recognised probability that seas could rise by 1– 2m by the end of this century.
Given the inevitability of rising seas, it is only a matter of time until 2m is exceeded. Storm surges raise sea levels significantly above this.
The town centre is threatened in the short term by coastal attack during storms and floodwaters backing up in the Belongil estuary into the town centre.
To me the key question that needs to be resolved now is, in the long term are we going to wall the town centre to prevent the ingress of the sea and estuary (and pump out floodwaters), and thereby allow for the increased development proposed (and more carparks – below sea level) or relocate it over time to higher ground?
I am alarmed that the only apparent consideration of rising seas is modeled flood levels at 2050, based on a sea-level rise of 0.4m. The model used has been identified by Council’s own consultants as fundamentally flawed and under-estimating resulting flooding in the Belongil estuary in extreme weather events.
In this climate emergency Council needs to have a long-term strategy for how it is going to cope with the impacts on the town centre of rising sea levels and increasing floods, and begin now to adapt its planning to facilitate this. The proposal to simply allow for taller buildings is untenable.
PS: Simon, I have made numerous detailed submissions on the folly of only using a sea-level rise of 0.4m for planning to Council for over a decade.
What effect would these sea walls have on the coastline North and South Byron and who is going to pay for them, Mexico? You can’t prevent rising sea levels by walling up every waterway and coastline.
Dailan Pugh it seems is green and Byron Council is not.
From Council all we hear is money woes but not about the environment or how that green bit grows.
What we hear from Council is the chopping down of the environment, and the use of a rail track that would be good for a bitumen road.
There seems to be some confrontation as Council changes to development and it makes the air get hot.
There’s nothing green about ripping up a $4 billion rail line, which has the potential to take thousands, if not millions, of cars off the roads, to build an expensive by-pass to accommodate more cars and increase traffic chaos!!
Louise,
Thanks for agreeing with me.