The South Burnett Regional Council (SBRC) entered negotiation with the developer of a historical subdivision in Memerambi. One of the key issues to be addressed was stormwater management for the site and the surrounding area. The developer had originally commissioned an engineer to prepare a stormwater management plan, however subsequently proposed an alternative concept in order to reduce costs.
Council was willing to consider an alternative approach but were not supplied with sufficient detail to properly assess the plan. Consequently, Council requested assistance from GenEng Solutions to:
- Review all background information provided by the developer including draft infrastructure agreements
- Review the original engineer’s stormwater report
- Prepare an indicative cost estimate of the original stormwater report
- Review existing subdivision site conditions
- Hydraulic modelling of the catchment area and subdivision site
- Develop a solution that met the intent of the developer’s proposed alternative
- Prepare a third alternative option, reporting on its technical efficacy and indicative costs
- Prepare a final Stormwater Management Plan report
With the assistance of Council’s Management, legal and planning professionals, a process for the completion of the necessary works to allow occupation of the historic estate was resolved. Upon determination of the process to complete the unfinished civil works, GenEng provided a more conventional design and supervision services for the 100-lot residential estate.
APPROACH
GenEng engineers and designers assisted in-house resources within Council to identify the feasibility of stormwater management options for the historic development. Ultimately GenEng delivered the detailed design and construction supervision of aspects of the residential land development, sensitive to the need for the most cost effective but compliant solutions. Technical staff worked alongside Council’s management, as well as legal and planning consultancies to resolve a range of issues and bring the project to completion.
CHALLENGES
A significant investment had been made by scores of individual investors in the Memerambi historic development’s house and land packages. In many cases the developer’s work ceased when more than 60 residences had reached “lock-up” stage. It was necessary for a large amount of technical work to be undertaken alongside planning and legal disciplines to bring the outstanding issues to a point where the design and construction of the necessary civil works could be undertaken.
OUTCOME
Resolution of issues associated with the development was made difficult due to legal processes and failure of the developer to complete conditioned works. Council, assisted by a multidisciplinary team of advisors, was able to complete the works using its powers under the Local Government Act and ensure that existing landholders with significant financial commitment in a large number of partially completed homes on the development, were recognised. Works were designed and constructed to ensure all residences and vacant township lots in the historic development were able to be occupied.