Climate change a factor in development refusal

In a sign of things to come, a residential estate has been refused approval because of the risk of rising sea levels and other environmental impacts.

Developer Northcape Properties wants to create an 80-lot subdivision at Marion Bay in South Australia. Yorke Peninsula District Council refused permission, as did the Environment Court.

The developer appealed to the Supreme Court but was rejected. Justice Bruce Debelle, after hearing that the shoreline would erode inland by up to 40 metres over times and compromise an erosion buffer zone and a coastal reserve, concluded that the subdivision proposal ?offends so many of the goals of the develpment plan that development consent must be refused?.

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