LEC decision creates upsides for flood affected sites
An important technical precedent was set late year in NSWLEC1568.
The commissioner really took apart Wollongong Council with respect to overland flow paths.
15 Nicholson Road, Bulli has a significant overland flow path running through it.
Any obstruction build in an overland flow path will divert water onto neighbours and roads. This diverted water can be captured and piped under a development, offsetting the impact of the obstruction. However almost all councils position for the past 30 years is that overland flow paths cannot be piped--they must be left open. (Nevermind that much of all modern cities are built on piped overland flow paths).
This means, effectively, that almost all land in an overland flow path cannot be built upon.
In this case, however, the Land and Environment Court agreed that the flow could be piped under the developmemt in a new culvert. In fact, the solution went further (to the dismay of Wollongong Council) allowing some of the water to be piped into an existing pipe under an existing road.
This precedent has far reaching impacts potentially creating development opportunities worth hundreds of billons of dollars.
If consistently applied, it means there are hidden opportunities on thousands of pieces of currently undevelopable land on or near overland flow paths.
On our client’s project we obtained approval for at 63 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park, our client has an 8 storey building. It lies in a significant overland flow path, effectively caused by an under capacity stormwater culvert. The GFA for the project was governed by the presence of this overland flow path (limiting the building footprint, the lowest floor level, and the basement size).
Had an upgrade of this culvert been permitted, the project could have realised perhaps an additional $20-30M in value with marginal cost increase.
I've previously written about how to identify overland flow paths here. But now, for an adventurous development team, these sites represent significant opportunities that most developers will overlook.
If you have a site or project you think might fit, one of us would be happy to take a look (at our cost) and let you know if there are any hidden upsides you can take advantage of.