Coastal plan updates

Consultation on the draft St Clair – St Kilda Coastal Plan has now closed. The community’s feedback will be considered and changes made to the draft plan before it is taken to Council for consideration, on  22 February 2022 - Council Agenda. Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback over the last few years. We appreciate the time you have taken to share your thoughts.

The plan will capture the values and aspiration of the community and set a management direction to support future adaptation. Through the plan a range of possible futures (options) will be shared, these options will be further assessed and some will be implemented in time.

The plan will also set out a range of short-term actions that relate largely to coastal monitoring, access improvements and dune management. It is proposed these actions will be taken in the coming years, to both improve the experience of the coast for the community and to inform longer-term planning and the assessment of options.

The draft St Clair–St Kilda Coastal Plan will be available for public feedback in late November/December this year (2021). A survey will also be provided that focuses on the key components of the plan.

We will let the community know how to give feedback on the plan before it is taken to the Council for consideration in early 2022.

Over the past few months the project team has been considering your feedback and drafting the St Clair–St Kilda Coastal Plan. The Coastal Plan will be available for public feedback before December 2021, prior to Council adoption. The Plan includes significant community input, particularly around the vision and objectives of the document. Management options will also be presented in the Plan, along with a set of next steps.

As well as drafting the Coastal Plan, we are also underway with physical works that will support the management of this coast. Two storage locations are being used to stockpile sand. The first location is near Tahuna Park and contains roughly 10,000m3 of sand and the second being located at the western end of Kettle Park and will include 8500m3 of sand. The sand in these stockpiles will be used for both erosion protection and planned remedial work for the dunes, including to support the removal of rubble from the dune system at Middle Beach, as well as to replenish the beach following storms. Willowridge Developments Ltd is providing the sand, free of charge, from its Ocean Heights development site on Centre Road, Tomahawk. Willowridge is also covering the cost of carting the sand to the DCC’s stockpile locations, while the DCC covers the cost of on-site storage arrangements. The DCC is very grateful to Willowridge for this opportunity.

In the most recent round of community conversations in February and March 2021, we received 500 responses on the concept visuals for the coast. We also met with and heard from many more groups and individuals to discuss the plan and understand the community’s thoughts and aspirations for the coast.

We are now pulling together all the feedback received over the last 14 months and, along with expert technical support, we are using the feedback to help draft the St Clair-St Kilda Coastal Plan.

The draft Coastal Plan will be presented to Councilors in mid-2021 and there will be further opportunity for you to provide your thoughts at this stage.

If you haven’t had a chance to view some of the ideas being shared for the coast, please have a look at the PDF below in the related information.

Last year, around 1,200 people shared feedback on how we can better look after the St Clair–St Kilda coast. With the help of community feedback, technical work and expert involvement, we created concept visuals on what each part of the coast could look like in the future (St Clair, Middle Beach and St Kilda).

The concept visuals  were not design drawings, rather they have been produced to illustrate some of the possibilities on offer for the coast.

From Friday, 19 February to Monday, 29 March 2021,  provided feedback on the concept visuals and what can be done to manage, protect and where possible enhance the St Clair to St Kilda coast.

The feedback received supported the DCC Coastal Plan team and specialists to draft the St Clair-St Kilda Coastal Plan. The draft Coastal Plan will then be presented to the Council, and funding for specific actions sought through future Annual Plan and 10 Year Plan processes.

What you have told us

Through our first round of engagement, the community has shared its key values and desired outcomes for the coast. These are:

• Better long-term protection from coastal erosion
• Better natural environment and habitats for wildlife
• Better and safer access to the beach and along the coast
• Better opportunities for recreation and play

These are all important, but the relative importance of each might be different between St Clair in the west, Middle Beach, and St Kilda in the east. The specific challenges we face and how we then manage the coast will also be different between these three sections.

We will provide a summary of the responses to this second round of engagement in February 2021, once we have finished going through them.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the first round of engagement on the Coastal Plan. We reached over 6000 people in the community and over 550 people provided feedback on ‘what matters most’ to them about this coast. The things people told us were most important were:

• Safety and accessibility – a beach that is welcoming to all.
• Recreation – spaces where people can walk, surf, swim and use the parks.
• Environment – a scenic coastline with greenery and wildlife.
• Connectivity – a linked up coast that people can travel through.
• Lifestyle – spending time with friends and families.

This feedback will help to develop a vision for the coast and ensure that the management approaches for the area align with the community’s values.

We are now shifting our attention to the second round of engagement and will be updating you shortly on ways to get involved in discussions on management approaches and visions for this coast.

The second phase of engagement - 'What can be done' is from early October to the end of December.

The St Clair-St Kilda Coastal Plan is about creating a vision with the community on how to best look after this valued coast. Have a look at our short video to understand more about this project. It is not too late to share what you love about the St Clair-St Kilda coast. We would like to hear about what makes this coast special to you. Your feedback will help shape our second phase of engagement in September where we will discuss options to best manage our coast for the future. The first phase of engagement on ‘What matters most’ about the St Clair-St Kilda coast closed on Monday, 17 August.

Thank you to everyone who has given their feedback on the Coastal Plan to date. We really appreciate the time you have given to us while we have been down on the coast. We enjoy hearing your ideas and will be continuing our conversations with you as we develop this plan together.