To reduce the threat to personal safety and flood damage in Lake Heights, Wollongong City Council has resolved to purchase two flood-affected properties in Mirrabooka Road.
The properties at 42 and 63 Mirrabooka Road will be purchased, the buildings on the land demolished and the land's classification updated to community land.
These are the third and fourth properties in the area to be purchased by Council under a program to improve flood management at this location. The program sees two-thirds of the purchase price, the demolition costs, the reasonable legal and valuation fees funded by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Council covers the remaining one-third of the costs.
"We don't make decisions to enter into a Voluntary Purchasing Agreement lightly and, in this case, there have been a number of properties in this area of Lake Heights that our analysis has shown pose an unacceptable risk to personal safety and flood damage,'' Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown said.
"We've already purchased two properties in this area at 98 and 99 Werringa Avenue. Following ongoing conversations with the owners of number 42 and 63 Mirrabooka Road, we have reached a point where we can also seek to buy these properties.
"Once this process is complete, the land will be classified as community land and Council will be able to investigate scheduling works that will allow for the construction of a detention basin. This will help reduce the flood risk on other neighbouring properties.''
Read the Council papers:
- Item-10-Proposed-Acqusition-of-42-Mirrabooka-Road,-Lake-Heights-under-the-Voluntary-Purchase-Scheme-for-flood-affected-properties.pdf
- Item-11-Proposed-acquisition-of-63-Mirrabooka-Road,-Lake-Heights-under-the-Voluntary-Purchase-Scheme-for-Flood-Affected-Properties.pdf
For a property to be eligible to be purchased under the Voluntary Purchasing Agreement the houses need to be specifically identified in the respective Flood Risk Management Study and Plan and assessed against NSW Government guidelines.
Council currently has more than 50 homes that are listed on the eligibility list in suburbs as diverse as Thirroul, Figtree and Balgownie. Since 1990, we have purchased 86 properties.
We're also currently updating Flood Risk Management Studies and Plans for areas including Hewitts Creek. The review's research will be informed by the statistical information and data collected by Council's floodplain experts.
"The Voluntary Purchase Scheme isn't a silver bullet for managing flood risk in our city,'' Cr Brown said.
"A large proportion of properties in our Local Government Area are identified as at risk of flooding – clearly Council and the State Government can't purchase them all for both budgetary reasons, but also because people want a roof over their head.
"What this program does do is allow us to target very high-risk properties and remove at-risk individuals from hazardous flood areas, thereby reducing the risk to residents and emergency responders.
"Then, by demolishing any housing and by returning that land to open space, or using the land to undertake flood mitigation measures, we can reduce the risk to neighbouring properties.''
In the long-term, Council plans to create of a dedicated flow path that will see stormwater flow from Barina Park detention basin to Minnegang Creek.
