This week, roughly 20,000 properties in our city will receive a letter from Council about a potential change to their flood risk. For most people it won’t come as a surprise – many of those residents received a letter like this back in 2022.
My property was also included in the 2022 mapping, so I’ll be receiving a letter too.
Flood risk mapping is never a popular topic, but it’s one of the steps we must take as part of drafting our new planning scheme. The work on this flood mapping began back in 2021, off the back of changes to how the State Government requires Councils to assess flood risk.
We know this information helps people prepare for floods and can have other impacts too: including what you can do with your land and how properties are valued. Often the biggest impact is the cost of insurance.
Residents contact me because they are frustrated that insurance companies hike their premiums and blame flood mapping. Insurers started doing this before we had even shared our flood maps with them.
Flood overlays are models based on historic floods, rain fall, storm events, topography, and other relevant data. They are designed to stop structures, especially houses, being built in the floodplain. This limits what some people can do with their land, but it also prevents any further impacts of flooding – especially to properties that are currently dry.
It also means that we recover faster from floods than other cities do. In 2022, less than 300 Logan homes had water over the floorboards while Brisbane had over 15,000.
The first time we sent a letter like this I wasn’t the Mayor and there was no opportunity to provide feedback. This time it will be different.
From 1 September, Council will spend nine weeks consulting with you about the new Logan Plan, which includes the flood mapping. You’ll be able to ask questions and make submission about what you think needs to change by visiting logan.qld.gov.au/loganplan.
I’ll be hosting public forums, with our planning teams, to listen to residents and answer your questions about the Logan Plan – with specific sessions dedicated to flood mapping.
The first flood mapping forum will be held online live on my Facebook page, on Wednesday 3 September at 6.30pm.
The short comsultation sessions will not fix lifting the 1 in 100 Flood Line 1.4 Metres and with NOT applying reduced DIFFERENTIAL RATING with 13 Flood Studies and a TLPI/24. Mt Lindesay Highway will not survive a big flood south of NORRIS CEEK, One post said there were 20,000 new affected residents ??? One resident applied for a track and Carport @ $7,000. I do not know about costs for a surveyor , engineer and Hydrologist ???. Council is not suppying Town Planning Aid, Legal Aid and an INDEPENDENT HYDROLOGIST and ENGINEER. Do not live in a PDA. or PFGA(3) Still about 964 pages of LPS2025 without the Flood Studies EISs A dozen Strategies without facts and about 30 missing projects in the Climate Change Strategy 2021, There is no short report on the cost to Ratepayers for EDQ PDAs and $30,000 cap subsidy per lo.t paid for by ratepayers. “The Heavy Lifting”is done by Ratepayers not Council.