Ground Crew at Turramurra v Ku-ring-gai Council

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

New South Wales Land and Environment Court

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

19/12/2007

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Adaptation

SUBJECT MATTER

Bushfire risk

REVIEW TYPE

Merits review

SUMMARY

The applicant appealed the refusal of a development application to construct a residential precinct by the Ku-ring-gai Council. The Council had refused the application on the grounds that (a) it was unable to grant consent, as the relevant fire authority had not given a bush fire safety authority; and (b) the proposal was not in the public interest due to bush fire risk. The Court considered, inter alia, the impact of climate change as potentially increasing the bush fire risk in the development. Roseth SC, in briefly considering the impact of climate change on fire risk, stated that he had not given the issue ‘major weight’ as it was unlikely to have a significant impact on the additional housing proposed by the development application. In Roseth SC’s view, the most that could be said for the impact of climate change on the region in question was that it would not decrease the risk of fire. Roseth SC made orders dismissing the appeal, predominantly due to other exigent factors including accessibility to the development by emergency services and the fact that the systems proposed by the applicant in a bush-fire had been insufficient in other similar developments.

CASE DOCUMENTS

Ground Crew at Turramurra v Ku-ring-gai Council [2008] NSWLEC 86