Owen v. Casey City Council

Summary:

The Applicant sought a planning permit for two dwellings. The Casey City Council refused to issue a permit on multiple grounds, including vulnerability of the design to the impacts of climate change. All of the grounds were challenged by the Applicant in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal decided state policy requiring the assessment and management of wider risks and consequences of the proposed development to the community meant the Applicant must prepare a coastal hazard vulnerability assessment even though Melbourne Water, the referral Authority, did not object to the permit. The Tribunal expressed concern that the subsequent assessment report did not address risks of inland or riverine flooding in addition to coastal flooding, however it refused the permit application on unrelated grounds.
The same parties again came before the Tribunal after Owen commissioned an assessment. The Tribunal found the assessment inadequate because it had considered only flooding related to coastal hazards and had ignored the risks attendant to riverine flooding, which was also expected to worsen with climate change.

At Issue: Permission to develop in a floodplain