The Baillieu government will wind back rules making new property developments in seaside towns plan for sea-level rises caused by climate change, arguing they have hampered rural growth.
Planning Minister Matthew Guy has also rejected recommendations of a major review that climate change should be specifically considered under state planning laws.
Announcing the changes yesterday Mr Guy said the previous rules - which forced developers to factor in a sea-level rise of 80 centimetres by 2100 - had been too restrictive.
”Regional Victoria bore the brunt of much of the previous Labor government’s coastal planning paralysis with moratoriums and extreme controls which locked many towns out of being able to grow sensibly,” he said.
The changes, to be brought in later this month, will now require 20 centimetres of sea-level rise by 2040 to be considered in new urban development in coastal towns such as Lakes Entrance, Port Lonsdale and Port Fairy.
The existing rules to plan for 80 centimetres of sea-level rise to 2100 will be kept for developments on new sites outside existing town boundaries.
Some local councils had been calling for clarity on existing sea-level rise rules amid complaints about inconsistency in the way they had been interpreted by planning authorities.
Mr Guy has also promised to release data and mapping on likely inundation due to sea-level rises and storm surges in coastal communities. Some of the data has been kept confidential from local councils for over 18 months, despite repeated pleas for their release.
Municipal Association of Victoria president Bill McArthur welcomed news the Baillieu government would now release the data, which he said was key for councils’ planning.
But he said councils wanted state government indemnity from future legal actions related to sea-level rises, as exists in New South Wales.
The changes came as part of Mr Guy’s response to a long-awaited report by the Coastal Climate Change Advisory Committee, which was also released yesterday. The review was handed to the government in December 2010.
Among other things, the review said a provision to ”identify and plan for the potential impacts of climate change in order to minimise risks to human health and safety and to ecological communities” should be included in Victoria’s Planning and Environment Act.
Mr Guy rejected this, saying existing provisions in the laws were sufficient to consider the environment, which needed to be balanced with economic and social factors.
Opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee said Premier Ted Baillieu had turned his back on coastal communities struggling with a changing climate.
”He has put developers before people. The full effects of this neglect will be seen in years to come when the legacy will be damaged homes and lives and the only winners will be developers and the lawyers poring over the rubble,” he said.
