In February 2011, hundreds of properties in Glen Eira were flooded. Council’s response was a report three months later which concentrated on either laying the blame elsewhere (ie Melbourne Water, developers and residents), or patting itself on the back for its ‘emergency response’. Promises were made, such as – Council officers are currently investigating increasing Council’s drainage maintenance resources and will report on this in due course. (Minutes of 28th June 2011). Needless to say, such a report has never seen the light of day in three and a half years!
Compounding the problem of flooding in Glen Eira is the fact that it is now 9 years at least since the introduction of the Special Building Overlay into the Planning Scheme. Such overlays are meant to safeguard against the risk of flooding by mandating floor level heights. Past estimates have placed properties at risk of flooding in Glen Eira as well over 12,000. With rapid development going on in the municipality, coupled with the increase of impermeable surfaces that such development brings, it surely is time to reassess the entire local drainage system and to evaluate whether any additional sites are now also deemed to be at flood risk.
Other councils have been proactive on this issue – Darebin, Greater Geelong and Port Phillip are the current examples. Port Phillip, which bears the brunt of much water flowing down from Glen Eira’s territory, resolved at its last council meeting to seek an amendment. The amendment follows several years of joint study with Melbourne Water and intends to clearly differentiate between Melbourne Water drains and local council drains. We’ve uploaded the full officer report HERE, but included below some important extracts –
Commencing a planning scheme amendment to update the SBO immediately is recommended. Following the SBO Review, it is now known that the current SBO does not accurately reflect all properties at risk of overland flooding. Council has a responsibility to keep the planning scheme up to date, and the SBO provides an important and transparent statutory mechanism for indicating properties that are subject to inundation in a severe storm event
Modification of the SBO boundaries on planning scheme maps to reflect the revised flood shape agreed by Melbourne Water and Council (refer maps at Attachment 4). This would:
- Include approximately 10,200 new properties which have now been identified as being subject to inundation.
- Remove approximately 500 properties from the SBO which are no longer identified as being subject to inundation.
- Retain the SBO over approximately 17,300 properties which remain subject to inundation. (Note: The extent of the SBO over these properties may be altered.)
Port Phillip has also included maps of the new sites in its proposed amendment. We find it extremely difficult to accept that potential flooding risk as determined by Port Phillip ‘conveniently’ stops at the border with Glen Eira. If many of the streets running off Hotham on the Port Phillip side are now deemed to require an SBO, then surely many of the properties less then 20 metres away on the Glen Eira side of the street could also be under threat. The questions that need to be asked regarding these new studies are:
- If ‘Council has a responsibility to keep the planning scheme up to date’, then what has Glen Eira done in the past decade or so in relation to its SBO?
- Why has Council been so reticent in providing any information on its flood risks and measures taken to improve and extend local drainage systems – especially after its ‘promise’ of 2011.
- The current buzz word for councillors is ‘capacity’. How is this quantified, evaluated, and acted upon?
- What impact is all this new development having on Glen Eira’s drainage systems and the water table? Does Council even know?
- And the most important question for residents is – how much longer will ratepayers continue to subsidise developers given that Glen Eira has abandoned its development contributions levy scheme?
Finally, readers may also find the Darebin proposed amendment of interest. Uploaded HERE.
Glen Eira Debates 
January 6, 2015 at 10:16 AM
Population in Bent street is tripled. Huge sections of Neerim road are probably quadrupled. There’s the digging for car parks that upset the water table. Councils drains are admitted to be close to 100 years old in places. Adding all this up the local drains won’t and can’t cope. The worry won’t be a 1 in 100 year flood. More likely a 1 in 10 or even 5 year flood. Start buying pumps everyone.
January 7, 2015 at 8:51 AM
Two things
1. There is nothing to say that a 1 in 5 year (or 1 in 10 or a 1 in 100 year) flood can’t occur in consecutive years. These figures are the result of statistical analysis which doesn’t take into account the impact of greater site coverage or increasing density or environmental changes yet Glen Eira’s Strategic Planners think if it flooded last year they have 4 (or 9 or 99 years) to do something about it.
2. If the drains are overflowing, sandbags and pumps around your house might be of some use but pumps by themselves will not.
January 6, 2015 at 12:21 PM
Relax climate change is myth, rain just disappears into holes in the grounds never to be seen again, you can make the officers do all these reporty type things, but Glen Eira’s is a slack mob they will just make it up anyway. A bit of water here and there, come back in a day, and it’s all gone away. It’s a rest year for everyone, there’s no flood expected for a 100 years, and if its late, it could be 130 years. It’s not a town hall problem, they just look after Christmas decorations, so they have nothing to do till next December.
I thought Lipshuzt greatest achievement of the year, was going to be his new Chanukah out front of the T/Hall, until I saw it, it looked like a post modern industrial interpretation of someone elses bad interpretation. I thought it was charmless, without a scrap beauty in its oblique cold square skeleton of its frame. I blame Lipshutz for this, as Chankahs can be objects of considerable charm and beauty
I think any new flood SBO for GE would turn out much the same as Lipshitz’s Chanukah.
January 6, 2015 at 1:32 PM
But where will you pump the water to Anonymous? This needs planning by a single authority – bring back the old Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works?
January 6, 2015 at 7:50 PM
This post is well timed – given the forecast for the weekend!
January 6, 2015 at 10:48 PM
I was one of those who was inundated with water from Council’s inadequate and poorly maintained drainage system. When I later asked them about when they last cleaned the drains in my street, they carefully avoided answering the question and instead used the word “attended”, as in attended to my street 3 times in the one year. What they did when they “attended” was left unspecified.
The problem is getting worse. We have Council and VCAT wilfully encouraging multiunit development with close to 100% site coverage in areas where the drainage is inadequate, without the revenue streams and investment plans to cope with the rapid runoff from all that concrete and asphalt. Council has used spurious arguments to justify scrapping Development Contributions. No councillor queried why Glen Eira was so much more expensive in its administration than its neighbouring councils, or what evidence officers had that the Minister wouldn’t approve a new Contributions scheme when the old one had been allowed to lapse.
Perhaps having a new Planning Minister has encouraged other councils to have a fresh crack at establishing a sensible revenue stream from developers to contribute to meeting the costs of infrastructure required as a consequence of their developments.
January 7, 2015 at 8:30 AM
I think you’ve answered your own question here. Past history tells me that Glen Eira Council will not do anything that would create additional costs to developers. That is why the contribution levy, tiny as it was, was allowed to lapse and why a new one has not been brought in.
January 7, 2015 at 8:27 AM
The reason Council hasn’t done anything about drainage and traffic (which Council lumps together when budgeting) in the growth zones is because they have been spending their budgeted amount (which hasn’t been increasing in line with the over development unleashed in growth areas since 2002) is because it’s been consumed by drainage works required for the mammoth C60/Caulfield Village development. They are just beginning digging for the first stage (400+ units) of the development yet already a lot of the drainage works have been undertaken and Redan Road (volume of traffic 750 vehicles per day) has lost 15+ parking spaces and had $100K worth of planted traffic management treatments installed (not a cheap bolted down speed hump mat in sight), despite all Redan Road residents protesting.
It’s just a real shame that, in order to provide a lovely mature tree 300m walk from the Village (whenever it is finished) to Caulfield Park, Council ignored the villagers use of the park across the street from the Village (ie. the Racecourse Park) and sacrificed the rest of Glen Eira currently experiencing drainage and traffic issues (both expected to continue to worsen) for a development that has only just started stage 1 (with stage 2 & 3 to be completed sometime over the next 15 years ie. when economic forecasts predicted optimum viability for the developer). By the way, did I mention that the expected stage 1 completion date has yet to be announced.
January 7, 2015 at 9:01 AM
What’s your problem, the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations are far more important, than these minor problems your blogging on about.
We don’t need flood management, we need more and better religious iconography at the Town Hall
PS. Maybe they will need to be waterproof, so the floods won’t wreck them
January 8, 2015 at 9:32 AM
Yet another illustration of the lack of attention to basic services is the maintenance neglect of our drainage. With the impending storms I cleaned the street gutters because our council rarely does it and with cars parked all day around my property on the rare occasions street cleaners arrive they just skip our street. Just why our lame council doesn’t have no parking during street cleaning times like well run municipalities is beyond me.
When cleaning the street gutter I noticed the culvert into which the street storm water flows is choc full of leaves. Had a walk down the street an all are the same. I’ve never seen anyone clean them. NEVER! And as a walker I can’t recall seeing any being cleaned for ages. Yet another example of a council that pays little attention to needed maintenance or ratepayers needs.
January 8, 2015 at 1:37 PM
That’s all true anonymous, but the Christmas and Hanukkah decorations got hours of attention and care, someone had to come in and turn on a little light bulb every day until they were all glowing like little beacons, the tension at the town hall was unprecedented, this is what the councillors think residents want, are they not right?
January 8, 2015 at 5:31 PM
The council’s lack of competence and incapacity to see what matters is mind boggling.
And where are our elected representatives? If we see the incompetence surely one of the nine can see it too.
January 8, 2015 at 6:45 PM
Councillors have been frightened off and brain washed into believing that drains are maintenance are “operational” matters so that they cannot put in their two cents worth. This would apply only to those few who might just give a damn and the others couldn’t care less.