The Court determined compensation of $8,644,370 for compulsory acquisition of flood-prone land near First Ponds Creek, Riverstone, rejecting Council's tripartite classification of the land (developable/developable with fill/undevelopable) in favour of a simpler R2/E2 zoning division. The Court preferred the applicants' hydrologist's evidence that absent the public purpose, a regional floodplain management scheme would have been resolved at the strategic planning stage prior to the 2010 precinct gazettal, rather than Council's site-based conceptual flood mitigation approach. The Court adopted the R2/E2 zoning boundary proposed by Council's planner (based on the SEPP Development Control Map flood line) but applied its own valuation rates of $480/m² for R2 land and $150/m² for E2 land, with a 5% discount for in-one-line components.
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