The constraints on housing development in our area are well known locally, as described in a letter last week, although apparently not recognised by the bureaucrats in Sydney who continue to insist that we must house more and more people.
Flooding is an obvious constraint, and nearly two years after the 2022 flood there are still people yet to return to their homes. Council claims that they can ‘manage’ flooding issues, but they can’t.
The heaviest one-day rainfalls in Mullumbimby have increased in size by more than 90 per cent over the last 125 years, but Byron Shire Council think that including a 20 per cent increase above current design rainfalls (that don’t take into account the lessons of 2022) will cover changes due to climate change until 2100.
Lifting building heights might seem a good idea, but how high do you go? Many of the houses in South Lismore were on poles two metres or more off the ground, but in 2022 the residents were rescued from their roofs by the ‘Tinny Army’.
To be guaranteed of being flood-proof, houses in the areas proposed for development by Council in east Mullumbimby would have to be about four metres above ground level, hardly a practical solution.
There is plenty of land not too far from infrastructure and services that is not floodplain, and the additional cost of developing that land will be a good investment compared to the on-going costs of flooding.
