Part of the Lismore City Council monthly meeting was a planning proposal from the General Manager to add a special flood consideration optional clause (5.22) into the Local Environment Plan. The business papers said the "clause will enable Council to consider flood matters and apply development controls to sensitive and hazardous development on land between the flood planning area and the probable maximum flood (PMF)."

The debate that followed and the comments used later in the night raised a big question for the future of Lismore. Should we rebuild on the floodplain?

Councillor (Cr) Vanessa Ekins said it made sense to consider the land between the planning area and the flood zone. "I think it's really important that we consider what development occurs in our floodplain. It's absolutely crucial that we have some oversight in that."

Cr Ekins mentioned there was no housing allowed in the floodplain but also expressed a thought that she doesn't think group homes, ecotourist facilities, caravan parks and boarding houses and the like should be allowed on the floodplain.

Cr Ekins was supported by Cr Bird who said the proposal makes so much sense. "In a community where we have such a high flood risk, we would apply extra consideration to mitigating that risk in order to protect people from a significant flood event."

On the other side of the coin was Cr Gordon who said that engineers at a flood forum that four councillors attended in Toowoomba recently told them that at worst it was a 1-in-1000-year event or a 1-in-3,500-year event. "Here we are tonight making decisions which might have implications for the next 1000 years at worst. And I just think about the economic revenue and us growing as community and what implications that may have on our potential growth."

Cr Rob also spoke about the potential harm to the growth of Lismore when he said "There are too many variables for the person who is trying to rebuild and invest in Lismore." He also said the onus should be on the owner of a house on the floodplain, "If I bought a house on a floodplain and it gets flooded, that's on me."

There appear to be divided camps on this debate. Those that feel the floodplain should not be built on for zero risk to life and less financial damage for an event that is likely to occur more often and those that believe this event will not occur in the next 10 lifetimes so we can manage the risk through mitigation and controls to provide growth opportunities for the future.

Executive Manager Economy & Growth: Eber Butron said the proposal is not prohibiting development, "It's just identifying several land uses for further consideration. This does not affect existing developments, they have existing use rights, but only new development identified in the area between the flood planning area and the PMF."

He added that one of the key factors for new developments to consider is flood mitigation and the evacuation of people in an area that can be described as 'undesirable'.

Lismore City Council will be going out to public submission soon asking a question on how comfortable people feel about the new flood planning height being increased from a 1-in-100-year event plus freeboard to 1-in-100-year event plus climate change plus freeboard which generally equates to a 1-in-500-year event.

The recommendation was passed 6/5.

The floodplain debate continued when the East and South Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant upgrades were passed.

One of the largest financial losses from the sewage treatment plants was the electrical boxes that were totally destroyed on February 28 2022. LCC was given five options at East Lismore and three options for South Lismore to upgrade the plants which included building the electrics above the 2022 flood level.

Crs Ekins was not happy with the plan being built in the 'same old place' then asking the state government for more money when it floods again plus the environmental impact when sewage goes into the waterways. This was backed by Cr Bird who said we cannot guarantee that next time and the time after that and the time after that the flood will be catastrophically worse and it is a mistake going back into the same place.

It was noted that if the sewage treatment plants were moved out of the floodplain to higher ground then the cost would increase dramatically because the sewage would need additional pumps to pump it up to the treatment plant.

This Lismore City Council was held straight after Easter and during the first week of school holidays so there were no public speakers. The meeting was completed just after 8:30 which must be a record for this term.

The next LCC meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 9 at 6pm.