The Yarra Ranges Council’s Erosion Management Overlay (EVO) was back in the spotlight at the Tuesday 9 December council meeting, sparking a lengthy debate.
The EMO of the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme was only last revised in March 2024, having been brought to the spotlight following multiple landslips across the region since 2021.
A landslide in McCrae in January this year also caused concern for many councils, with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council accused in a Board of Inquiry report of only taking “limited actions” to reduce landslide risk.
Montrose resident of 30 years and former Monbulk MP Steve McArthur spoke at the meeting to object to the amendment and said it is an important issue for the thousands of families who own houses in the area and are therefore greatly affected by whatever decision is made.
“The Coffey Partners report into landslip had been published just before we bought our home, I took the time to check that the property was not in the new landslip zone prior to purchase,” he said.
“It was not – if it had been, we would not have bought it, you can bet that future buyers will take a similar approach to this overlay.
“Since that time there have been two additional reviews into the matter, each time the expert consultants employed to advise Council delivered essentially the same message…they adopt a risk-phobic strategy as they do not ever want to be accused of failing to issue sufficient warning.”
In his speech, Mr McArthur compared the panic to the infamous ‘Y2K’ issue, the prediction of
computer errors based on the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000, which were predicted to cause widespread issues or failures for computers around the world.
Mr McArthur chaired a Parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s preparedness for Y2K and said there were probably some incidents, but the experts vastly overestimated its impact.
“That is their nature and it works for them, it protects them from accusations of dereliction of duty and it often guarantees more commissions and none of them are cheap,” he said.
“If you approve (Amendment) C225 it will significantly impact thousands of families – 3259 according to WSP Golder, they are all families who live in and love the area.
“In future they will face the threat of planning blight – that is to say, they may continue to live in their home but will be greatly restricted in what they can do with it, should they need to repair it or wish to extend it, for many due to the C225 overlay, the barriers they face will be insurmountable, due either to cost or practicality.”
Previous mapping of landslide risk was hand-drawn for the creation of the EMO in the 1990s but the council recently had mapping done with advanced three-dimensional mapping technology, named Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), to accurately identify landslip-prone areas in Yarra Ranges.
13,724 properties will be affected by the amendment: for 937 properties the EMO will no longer apply to, 10,168 landslide-susceptible properties will continue to be affected, 3259 properties will be newly considered susceptible properties), 209 properties will continue to be affected by debris flow susceptibility and 290 more will now be considered at-risk of debris flow.
Director of Planning, Design and Development Kath McCluskey fielded questions from councillors and said the panel process that they’ll set up will allow every submitter to present their views to the panel.
“If community members want to provide their own expert evidence, they can also do that, council will present all the submissions, so every written submission gets referred in and if we receive submissions after today, they will also be referred into the panel,” she said.
“What I might also say is when the bushfire controls came in, they were just put in, there was no panel that was established to hear submissions from community, it was unilaterally applied, this gives community opportunity to present those views.
“I would suspect in this case we’ll have a three-person panel that will have technical expertise, and they will also consider the impact on community as well, as well as looking at what are the mitigation measures that can be put in place.”
Yarra Ranges Council received 84 submissions to the amendment prior to the meeting: one supported the amendment, one supported and requested a change, four stated no objection to the amendment, two critiqued the methodology used, eight had no position and 68 opposed the amendment and/or have sought changes or review of the mapped extent.
Ms McCluskey was also asked whether residents will face barriers to building, repairing and development, what risks the council faces by not acting and why the decision has to g to an independent planning panel.
“Each site will be assessed on its own merits, for a lot of proposals there will be an engineering solution, however, there may be some properties that may not ever be able to be built on,” she said.
“We’ve got properties that could otherwise be removed from the EMO that are no longer in an EMO, we equally have properties that may have landscape risk, that may develop without the right controls in place.
“Under the Planning and Environment Act, once we go through an amendment process, we must consider all submissions where we can’t resolve them and in this instance, we’ve had many community members say we don’t want to be included in the erosion management overlay for a number of reasons, we just can’t resolve them, so we have to, under the Act, refer them into an independent planning power.”
Concerns raised by residents included opposition to the mapping itself, the methodology of mapping, impact on insurance cover, impact on property values, impact on future development and permit applications, the consultation process, property rates, stormwater and drainage issues and compensation or buyback schemes for undevelopable land.
O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child said he thinks the council did the appropriate thing after the June 2021 storms by doing another assessment of the issue.
“I support the recommendation because of the journey that we’ve been on with this significant issue, which really stems back from the time that Councillor (Fiona) McAllister was Mayor of this municipality and through the horrendous event up in the Dandenongs in 2021,” he said.
“What really highlights it even more now is what was mentioned earlier in regards to the McCrae landslide, being Mayor this year, I was actually contacted by the chair of that investigation, who actually asked the amount of significant work that we’ve already done and praised us for that work.
“The risk, as a person, I just could not see us take that risk, we have to do this body of work and this amendment will keep people and property safe by preventing inappropriate development.”
Where considered appropriate, submissions were referred to Council’s geotechnical consultant for a further review which can be read here: yarraranges.moderngov.com.au/documents/s24299/Attachment%202%20-%20Geotechnical%20analysis%20of%20submissions.pdf.
In some cases, onsite assessments were carried out as a result of submissions, which resulted in the properties removed from the EMO in areas in Upwey, Tecoma, Belgrave and Chirnside Park as well as isolated locations around Mount Dandenong and Olinda.
Ryrie Ward councillor Fiona McAllister, Lyster Ward councillor Peter McIlwain, Billanook Ward councillor Tim Heenan and Streeton Ward councillor Jeff Marriott also all spoke in support of the motion, while Melba Ward councillor Mitch Mazzarella encouraged anyone with concerns to submit as part of the planning panel process and have their voice heard.
The motion was carried unanimously.
