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In 2022, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner would not be drawn on whether his LNP majority council was considering reinstating the scheme, saying while “not a silver bullet”, it needed to be looked at.
The council’s 2022 flood recovery plan sought to also reassess land use in flood-prone areas, including commercial and industrial zones, to boost future resilience.
What they said
The Greens’ lord mayoral candidate, former Gabba Ward councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan, said there had been little change to flood-prone development rules since then, with more projects green-lit instead.
“Our message to property developers is clear: if it floods, forget it,” he said in a statement. “Less than 10 per cent of Brisbane’s urban footprint is prone to severe flooding, and there are plenty of developable sites on higher ground.”
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His party’s plan, first touted ahead of the 2020 council election but now laid out in further detail, involves banning new development in the two highest flood-risk categories of city land.
It would still allow owners to renovate or raise existing homes and businesses above flood levels, provided this does not result in an expansion of a building’s footprint.
It is proposed that land purchased as part of the buyback scheme – or, in the case of investment properties, potentially acquired if owners were unwilling to sell – would be funded through a portion of the existing park acquisitions budget and would be converted into parkland.
In lower-risk, but still flood-prone areas, rooms and essential infrastructure in new developments would need to be at least two metres above predicted flood levels, rather than 50 centimetres.
“If a flood means your building loses electricity, garbage collection services, elevator access and transport connections, that still causes major disruptions to your life, even if your actual home doesn’t go underwater,” Sriranganathan’s campaign website states.
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Source Agencies
