Site and Water Management Design
This project involved redevelopment of a defunct golf course into a beautiful 163.5-acre regional destination that includes a nine-hole golf course (currently being used for disc golf); kayak, biking and hiking trails; a sports center with meeting space, shops and a café; a great lawn with picnic pavilions, playgrounds and sand volleyball courts; and an interactive fountain. Part of the acreage was set aside for future development, such as a horticulture center, arts center, dog park, senior center, and amphitheater.
As lead consultant, Erdman Anthony directed the efforts of the golf course designer, landscape architect, and architect, and guided the internal civil engineering efforts. Erdman Anthony evaluated the stormwater storage capacity of the drainage basin and demonstrated that the project would have no adverse impacts on- or off-site as a result. We also examined the surface water hydrology (for the site and adjacent neighborhoods) that flows toward the site and analyzed the hydraulics for the tertiary drainage system.
Based on a previously approved master plan, Erdman Anthony prepared the site plan, which included a kayak launch, a 20-acre kayak trail, a bike trail along the lake, pedestrian bridges, and aquatic plantings. Our team also designed the grading for the site, including the water bodies, which were intended to support aquatic plants. The project included irrigating the site with surface waters; therefore, we prepared the water-use permit for the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).
The site had some arsenic contamination from the previous golf course, and Erdman Anthony prepared a soil- and groundwater-management plan to address that. The plan included the following steps: containing the contaminated soils under landscape berms or impervious surfaces, thus removing the source of groundwater contamination; construction of lakes, converting much of the contaminated ground water to surface water, which has a higher allowable concentration level; and institutional controls so that that no potable water wells are installed on the site.
We also prepared a dewatering plan for the construction effort and processed the construction dewatering permit through the SFWMD, which was closely coordinated with the contamination cleanup effort. The project also involved a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan, including a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit application from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which had been delegated authority from the U.S. EPA, and securing confirmation from the Army Corps of Engineers so that no permit was needed.