NSW South Coast home owners could be forced to move or abandon their properties once rising sea levels posed a hazard under a controversial ''planned retreat'' policy proposed by the Eurobodalla Shire Council.
The council's Eurobodalla Interim Sea Level Rise Adaptation Policy, which seeks to implement planning guidelines the NSW Government introduced late last year in response to the long-term threat of rising sea levels, also proposes to restrict development in at-risk locations, and ''engineering solutions'' such as erecting sea walls in areas of broad community significance.
Byron Shire Council was the first NSW coastal shire to introduce the planned or strategic retreat policy in 1988, and since then it has been a continual source of controversy.
The Eurobodalla Shire Council report's author, coastal and flood management planner Norm Lenehan, said the interim policy would be in place until detailed studies to map the location and extent of erosion damage along the shire's 112km coastline were completed, which would take years and cost about $500,000.
Among the interim policy's proposals, which are available for community consultation in the coming weeks, were planned retreat laws.
''There's retreat strategies, where we identify set hazard triggers, and when those hazard triggers are reached we retreat from those areas,'' Mr Lenehan said.
''People must be able to make informed decisions, so if we were to ignore sea level rise, if we weren't to plan for sea level rise, and allowed people to make investment decisions without that knowledge, then that would be more unfair.''
He said Batemans Bay was most at risk. In October, the NSW Government named the town one of 19 ''hot spots'' along the state's coastline under threat from erosion. The NSW Government has ruled out compensating people forced to move their homes within their property or to relocate altogether.
The draft will be on exhibition from April 15-26, and seminars will be held 6.30-7.30pm on Monday, March 22, at Hanging Rock (AFL/Rugby Clubhouse), Tuesday, March 23, at Broulee Surf Club, Wednesday, March 24, at Tuross Head Progress Association Hall, and Thursday, March 25, at Narooma Golf Club.
For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
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