Re-thinking How We Plan to Address Technically Complex Problems: Drawing on Planning Theory to Guide Practice in Revision of Land Use Plans in Coastal High Hazard Zones

Queensland's new State Planning Policy for Coastal Protection, released in March and approved in April 2011 as part of the Queensland Coastal Plan, stipulates that local governments prepare and implement adaptation strategies for built up areas projected to be subject to coastal hazards between present day and 2100. Local governments with lands within the delineated coastal high hazard zone (as determined by models incorporating a 0.8 meter rise in sea level and a 10% increase in the maximum cyclone activity) will be required to re-evaluate their plans to accommodate growth, revising land use plans to minimise impacts of anticipated erosion and flooding on developed areas and infrastructure (DERM 2011a). While implementation of such strategies would aid in avoidance or minimisation of risk exposure, communities are likely to face significant challenges in such implementation, especially as development in Queensland is so intensely focussed upon its coasts with these new policies directing development away from highly desirable waterfront land. Indeed the Property Council of Australia, while “maintain(ing) steadfast support for the intent of the policy” has declared the Queensland Coastal Plan to “have severe negative consequences not only for the development industry, but also for owners of property anywhere within the coastal zone and the broader economy,” proclaiming the plan will “have the most significant impact on the property industry since the introduction of the South East Queensland Regional Plan 2005 – 2026” (2011). Recognition of the realities of climate change, when placed in a local context through mapping of coastal high hazard zones, come into conflict with visions of how a community, believed it might develop, and further, how those with vested interests in such development advocated for such activity.