What's Next
In planning for a more resilient Townsville, our work is never done. Here is some of the other work that is coming.
Temporary Local Planning Instrument
The new flood information represents the latest and best information for flood in Townsville, and Council wants to ensure that the new mapping and flood depths are used to inform more flood resilient building and planning decisions. The Queensland Government’s process to amend a planning scheme can take some time. That’s why Council is preparing a temporary local planning instrument (TLPI) to update flood hazard mapping and ensure new development uses the latest flood information. Once in effect, the TLPI will last for two years, giving Council time to permanently incorporate new flood resilience measures into the Townsville City Plan.
Major Amendment to the Townsville City Plan
After we have received feedback from the community about how we proposed to respond to flood risk in the Townsville City Plan, we will take some time to consider your feedback and determine how we might need to change our response. Once this stage is complete, we will prepare an amendment to the Townsville City Plan allowing this new flood information to be permanently incorporated in the Townsville City Plan. The State Government has a statutory process that we must follow, which takes some time. The process includes multiple stages, including public consultation. During the public consultation period, you will be able to see how we’ve taken on board your feedback from this community engagement. You will also get a chance to provide comments on the proposed amendment. We will commence the amendment in 2025.
Planning for coastal resilience in Townsville
As a coastal city in the tropics, Townsville is also exposed to coastal hazards, including storm-tides and coastal erosion. That’s why we are also completing work to better understand our coastal environment and the risk it poses to our community. This work includes coastal studies, a coastal risk assessment and planning policy responses to coastal risk, just like what we have done for flood hazard, to better understand how coastal risk affect people, property and the environment. When this work has been completed, Council will share this information with the community and seek feedback, just like we are doing now for flood hazard.
We are also preparing a strategy for how we deal with a changing coastal environment, called Adapting to Coastal Change in Townsville (A2CCT). Public engagement for the A2CCT will occur during 2025.
Planning for bushfire and landslide resilience in Townsville
Townsville has a diverse landscape with many natural areas and hills, some of which are exposed to bushfire and landslide hazards. The nature of these hazards is a bit different to flooding and coastal changes; however, we also need to improve our community’s resilience to them. As such, Council is undertaking some preliminary studies on how we can improve our planning for bushfire and landslide resilience.
