Changes to the Coastal Protection Act to manage coastal erosion

What the Amendments Do

The Coastal Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2010 made changes to the Coastal Protection Act, Local Government Act and Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, as well as minor changes to various regulations. These amendments have now commenced.

Better coastal protection

• Added an objective to the Coastal Protection Act to promote adaptation to coastal climate change impacts and beach amenity.
• Improved the Act's coastal management planning requirements so that more councils get long-term coastal erosion and emergency response plans in place more quickly, including allowing the Minister to direct a council to prepare an emergency response plan (sections 55B, 55C and 55G of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Requires coastal zone management plans to include managing risks from coastal hazards and managing estuary health (incorporating the projected influence of climate change).
• Establish an expert NSW Coastal Panel with local government and public authority nominees to act as a consent authority for development application works where council does not have a coastal plan in place, and provide advice to the Minister and local councils (section 12 of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Increases information about land in relation to coastal risks and likely management responses by councils. Details from applicable coastal zone management plans would be included in section 149 planning certificates under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (section 56B of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Better protects councils from liabilities so they can carry out essential coastal actions effectively (section 733 of the Local Government Act).
• Enables coastal zone management plans to be prepared for Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay, and the Hawkesbury River Estuary.
• Eliminates overlap between the coastal erosion emergency section of coastal zone management plans and disaster plans prepared under the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act, and remove unnecessary duplication for regulating offshore activities carried out by public authorities.

Balances public interest with private property rights

• Establishes a practical and fair framework to ensure balance between protecting private property and public assets from coastal erosion, while maintaining beach access.
• Allows landowners an opportunity to place temporary sandbags or sand on a beach under strict conditions to reduce the impacts of coastal erosion threats to properties while longer term actions are considered (sections 55O-55Z of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Requires that a consent authority for long-term coastal protection works by landowners be satisfied so that suitable arrangements will be in place to maintain the works and restore the beach if eroded by the works (section 55M of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Requires satisfactory arrangements for ongoing maintenance of permanent protection works (section 55M of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Requires a review of the Act after 5 years, and a review of the section allowing emergency protection works after 2 years.

Empowers councils to protect our beaches

• Empowers specialist authorised officers of councils or state agencies to order the removal of any temporary works if they are causing erosion, posing a safety risk, or interfering with continued public access to beaches (section 55ZC of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Improves the ability of authorised officers (appointed by councils and public authorities) to investigate breaches of the Act.
• Improves powers relating to the illegal dumping of material on a beach which may cause erosion, present a risk to public safety, or limit public access to beaches. Improved powers include the ability to issue immediate 'stop work' orders and/or remove material(s) from beaches if orders are not followed, with full removal costs able to be recovered.
• Allows councils to levy a coastal protection service charge (outside rate-pegging) on landowners who voluntarily build seawalls, in order to recover council's costs of maintaining the works and managing its erosion impacts on beaches for the life of the works. This is not retrospective, except with the landowner's agreement.
• Improves powers to order a person to stop placing illegal material or to enable councils to remove illegal material (such as rocks or waste) placed on a beach, where this is likely to cause erosion or present a public safety risk.
• Increased penalties for breaches of the Act, closer to the penalties currently in place for illegal waste dumping under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act.
• Requires councils to place a copy of their coastal zone management plan on their website.

What the Amendments do NOT do

• Allow works by landowners that would result in beach erosion. Emergency works that start causing erosion can be ordered to be removed, and any long term works such as seawalls will only be approved if any erosion impacts are managed through good design and/or beach nourishment (sections 55M and 55ZC of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Prevent access to beaches. Any emergency works that obstruct beach access can be ordered to be removed and any long-term works such as seawalls will only be approved if they do not unreasonably impede access to a beach (sections 55M and 55ZC of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Allow landowners, as part of emergency works, to dump rocks or waste on beaches to protect their property from erosion. Only sand or sandbags can be used for emergency works, and long-term works can only be constructed with consent if beaches and safety are protected (sections 55M and 55P of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Allow landowners to protect their property from erosion without approvals. For emergency works, land owners will need to obtain a certificate from an authorised officer of a council or the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water. For permanent works, such as building a seawall, development consent will be required under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (sections 55M and 55T of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Reduce private property rights. In fact, landowners will have the additional right to carry out emergency works, provided it is certified by an authorised officer (section 55T of the Coastal Protection Act). Recent amendments to the Infrastructure SEPP more readily allow landowners to lodge a development application for permanent works to protect their property.
• Allow unreasonable use of public land to protect private property. Emergency works can only be placed on public land if all reasonable measures have been taken to avoid using public land (section 55Z of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Place an unreasonable burden on local councils. Councils will be able to recover fees and charges associated with their approval and compliance activities (sections 55T and 55ZE of the Coastal Protection Act).
• Force landowners to spend money to protect their property from erosion. The emergency and long-term property protection arrangements are voluntary.
• Allow new urban development in areas at risk from erosion. Development in coastal areas is managed under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act through councils' local environmental plans, State Environmental Planning Policy No 71 (Coastal Protection) and the Department of Planning's recently released NSW Coastal Planning Guideline: Adapting to Sea Level Rise.
• Allow councils to levy a coastal protection service charge for existing seawalls without the landowner's agreement. Councils will only be able to charge landowners who have voluntarily contributed to the cost of building a seawall, where the seawall was constructed after the Act amendments commence (sections 496B and 553B of the Local Government Act). This is not retrospective, except with the landowner's agreement