You don’t have to meet the flood planning level

The DCP floor level isn't the final word

Most DCPs prescribe a finished floor level for flood-affected buildings. Hit the number, get consent. Miss it, get refused.

But that's not the whole story. Here's why.

The Flood Risk Management Standard 2023 takes a merit-based approach. It asks whether a proposal reduces flood risk, not just whether it clears a prescribed level. That's a pretty significant shift from the traditional DCP-first reading.

Borg v Blacktown City Council [2024] NSWLEC 1425 tested this directly. The Borgs' proposed floor level at Angus was 15.5m AHD. The flood planning level was 17.8m AHD. Council refused consent. The court disagreed, finding that the raising reduced inundation frequency from roughly every 5 years to roughly every 45 years. A tenfold improvement. Good enough.

We ran the same argument at 1 Kimber Lane. Council came around at conciliation. Open ground floor to preserve flood storage, roof hatch for shelter-in-place above the PMF level.

The design didn't meet the DCP controls. It didn't need to.

Worth keeping in mind when the prescribed level looks impossible.