Up to 94 homes and a number of public assets on Shellharbour's coastline, including a surf club, tourist park and stormwater infrastructure, are at risk from rising sea levels and erosion, according to a plan adopted this week by Shellharbour City Council.
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The council's coastal zone management plan has pinpointed the area around the Shellharbour village foreshore as being particularly exposed, and says 37 properties in the city will be at "extreme risk" of damage by 2100.
To measure the risk rating, the council has assessed the likelihood and the consequences of coastal hazards, like erosion of land or inundation.
Read more: Asbestos found in Warilla sea wall
The affected properties also include nine housing lots on Wollongong Street and one lot on Towns Street, which are classified as having an extreme risk in the present day.
Another 57 lots, mostly located in Little Lake Crescent, along the beach at Warilla, have an "unknown", but possibly extreme risk.
The council notes that these “unknowns” are located immediately next to the Warilla seawall, that “may or may not be built to suitable engineering standard to provide protection from erosion”.
By 2050, the council says there will be extreme risk to 24 housing lots, including one at Towns street and 13 at Boollwaroo Parade. And by 2100, another 13 lots on the same streets would be at risk.
Public buildings at risk include the Shellharbour Beachside Tourist Park at South Beach, Shellharbour Surf Life Saving Club and a number of stormwater outlets and sewer pipes.
The council's plan proposes a number of measures for minimising risk for at risk properties.
The biggest project will be to assess and eventually upgrade the Warilla sea wall, which has started washing away during storms and large seas.
The new coastal management plan says the council aims to begin upgrades by 2026.
Other mitigation measures include the use of dredged sand from the entrance to Lake Illawarra to serve as a buffer for further erosion.
This “opportunisitic nourishing” could be used in front of the sea wall and at North Shellharbour Beach in front of the surf club.
“This option has been undertaken with success in the past (in 2007) where sand from the entrance to Lake Illawarra was placed on Warilla Beach, at relatively low cost,” the council report says.
On Tuesday night, councillors voted unanimously to adopt the coastal zone management plan. It will now be forwarded to the NSW Government to be gazetted.
Mayor Marianne Saliba welcomed the adoption of the plan, saying it would allow the council to apply for funding for some projects including the seawall at Warilla.
She said the cost would be “in the many millions” and would need to be funded from outside the council.
“This is not an easy job and it’s very costly, so what we want to do is to put in for a grant to do a study on stablising this wall,” she said.
Responding to concerns about a delay in putting climate change policies in place from some community members at the council's public access forum, she noted Shellharbour was the second Illawarra council to adopt such a plan.
Wollongong City Council has adopted a similar plan which highlights that WIN Stadium,homes around Thirroul Beach and 13 surf clubs and public buildings were at high or extreme risk by 2100.
The coastal management plans are now required by the NSW Government from all coastal councils, which must consider present day and future risks in any planning and development decisions made for their coastlines.