It comes as a floodplains management advocate said more than one new development had resulted in the flooding of neighbouring properties in North Wagga.

On Monday night, councillors voted for an amendment which would see council “unlikely to approve” development in floodplain areas until a new flood study was undertaken and a corresponding plan was put in place. 

A key part of the study was investigating the “cumulative effect of development”. 

It replaced a motion which would have seen a “moratorium” placed on developments in which council would “not approve development outside protection of [a] levee bank”. 

Floodplain Risk Management Advisory Committee chair and Wagga City councillor Greg Conkey said the change was made to allay any misconceptions that Wagga wasn’t open for business.

“We didn’t want to do that,” he said. “We don’t want to stifle any development.”

Cr Conkey said the new plan, expected to be before councillors for approval next March, would “draw a line in the sand” for developers to abide by. 

Wagga Floodplains Residents Protection Association president Nick Stephenson said he supported the move to restrict rather than ban developments until a new study was completed.

“Council realises it doesn’t currently have up to date data about the floodplain,” he said.  “In addition, it doesn’t have a mechanism to deal with cumulative impacts.” 

While many developers did the right thing, Dr Stephenson said there were instances of multiple new builds resulting in “cumulative” flooding which impacted neighbouring properties on Wagga’s floodplains. 

What has been happening is developments have been approved which have had flood impacts and have all added together eventually,” he said. 

The restriction on floodplain building comes as the federal government promised $10 million to raise the levee bank in June.