At its meeting on 21 February, Manningham Council will consider the community’s submissions on its proposal to revise existing and introduce new planning overlays to more accurately reflect areas that may be subject to overland stormwater inundation in a severe storm event.
Council proposed Amendment C109 following the Victorian Auditor General’s recommendation that Melbourne Water and councils carry out flood mapping and include the results in local planning schemes to provide a higher level of flood protection for new development across Victoria.
A total of 523 submissions have been received relating to the Manningham Planning Scheme proposal, known as Amendment C109, which was developed in conjunction with Melbourne Water and exhibited in November and December 2015. Two separate expert consultants have been used to both develop and peer review the stormwater modelling.
At its meeting, Council will decide whether or not to refer the submissions to an Independent Panel for consideration, where, all submitters would have the opportunity to present their submission.
An Independent Panel would review the submissions before making recommendations to Council and the Minister for Planning about the amendment. Council would then decide whether or not to adopt Amendment C109. If adopted, the recommendations will be forwarded to the Minister for Planning for final approval.
As part of the amendment process to date, each of the submissions received has been individually reviewed and assessed by Council officers.
Where a submitter has questioned their property being included in the amendment, a further technical review has been undertaken against a range of criteria. This includes whether the actual terrain or drainage infrastructure differs from the data used to assess overland stormwater flows and whether the impact on a property is considered minor.
In many cases site visits of individual properties have been conducted to better assess the submission against actual site conditions.
In support of this, Council engaged separate environmental consultants to undertake an independent peer review of the methodology used to map the location and extent of the proposed overlays. The consultants found that the methodology used was sound and robust and complies with best practice.
Manningham Council is not the first Council to propose and/or implement changes to its planning overlays to address updated mapping of overland stormwater flows associated with extreme rainfall. Similar processes have been implemented at more than 20 councils across Victoria including the cities of Port Phillip, Yarra, Stonnington, Banyule, Glen Eira and Moonee Valley.
For more information on Amendment C109, including updated Frequently Asked Questions, please visit www.yoursaymanningham.com.au/amendment-C109
