North Lakes Fairway Chase Linear Park

Fairway Chase Linear Park is 4 ha park at the heart of Stockland’s Fairway Chase residential development and is the major open space area for the north western areas of North Lakes. The parkland seemlessly integrates Water Sensitive Urban Design within public open space facilities. A central feature of the parkland is a lake and wetland system, as well as a number of bioretention systems and a high flow bypass swale that functions as the stormwater treatment area for several surrounding catchments.

• Project Timeframes Open space planning and integrated water management planning for the Fairway Chase neighbourhood development in North Lakes commenced in 2005. In 2006, the concept design of the Water Sensitive Urban Design Strategy was completed, in conjunction with the civil and landscape design. The detailed design of the parkscape was completed in 2007 and followed by the staged construction and establishiment of WSUD elements between mid 2008 to mid 2009.
• Location / Address North Lakes, Queensland
• Estimated Costs The estimated cost for the design and construction of this 4ha high value, multi-use parkland is approximately $6 million. The cost of the WSUD Infrastructure was $2,080,600 including: / $1,048,300 for 8 bioretention systems (combined footprint 4,765m²) / $595,000 for constructed wetland (3,500m²) / $437,300 for sustainable lake with recirculation system (2,645m²)
• Responsible Authority Moreton Bay Regional Council
• Developer Stockland
• Designers Project Management: Stockland. Urban Design: AECOM. Environmental Engineering: Shaun Leinster, Duncan Thomson, Malcolm Eadie (formerly Ecological Engineering/AECOM). Ecology: Andrew Cook, Sally Boer. Civil Engineering: KN Group. Landscape Architecture: AECOM. Town Planning and Surveying: Conics. Flood Modelling: SKM. Environmental Reporting:Natural Solutions and ERM
• Contractors Civil Contractors –Civil Construction. Eureka Landscapes – Landscape Construction and Establishment
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• Objectives Fairway Chase Linear Park was designed as a focal point for the surrounding residential precincts, which all drain to the park area. A multidisciplinary approach at the concept design stage of the project allowed WSUD to be considered as an integral influencing factor in the urban planning process. This resulted in creative and cost-effective stormwater management strategies that address and utilise stormwater as a resource rather than a problem.
  
  The park is centrally located, within residential precincts playing a key role in providing public open space as well as stormwater treatment. The design approach from the beginning included integration of landscape and stormwater treatment as key design drivers. The design established a comprehensive framework for the integration of WSUD strategies, while maximising views of the adjacent golf course, connecting to existing and future open space networks and crafting a signature linear parkland system.
  
  The sustainably designed lake at the centre of the park is a defining aesthetic feature but also has an important function to help to mitigate flooding downstream. Surrounding the lake is a meandering wetland which treats stormwater and can be used to adaptively recirculation lake water to manage water quality.
  
  Vegetated bioretention systems were used as landscape features around the edge of the parkland. These systems slow and polish the stormwater runoff, while also creating a natural buffer to the surrounding road network. To achieve this bioretention systems were designed as close to the park surface as possible to help with the visual integration.
  
  
• Key Challenges A key challenge of the Fairway Chase Linear Park was to ensure that the central lake remained as an aesthetic feature of the park. This required the lake to be sustainably designed to ensure that the lake would maintain good water quality and not harbour weeds and pests. To manage these risks the lake includes a number of sustainable design features, such as being connected to a recirculation wetland and densely planted edges. The recirculation wetland was similarly designed to incorporate aesthetics as well as the additional function of cleansing stormwater runoff from the surrounding residential catchments.
  
  As well as providing these aesthetic values, the Water Sensitive Urban Design elements (wetlands, bioretention and swales) in the park needed to provide important conveyance functions for flood flows. The design challenge was to ensure that these systems weren’t over-engineered or too wide. The solution was to provide flood storage in the lake as well as provide a bypass of flood flows in pipes underground.
  
• What makes this project innovative ? The parkland’s primary innovation is the physical delivery of a high quality end result that successfully integrates WSUD and landscape design within usable public open space and should be considered an exemplar for Water Sensitive Urban Design.
  
  Another innovative aspect of this project is its comprehensive approach to the sustainable design of new residential communities. Water planning objectives, to be met through stormwater treatment and re-use, were one of the key sustainability initiatives for the project. Due to the early integration of WSUD outcomes into the project’s master planning process, the parkland has achieved best practice stormwater management.
  
  The provision of signage and interactive board walks over the wetlands and bioretention systems is also innovative as it has the added benefit of allowing people to develop an understanding of WSUD, by engaging with its functional elements. As the community engages with the parkland’s elements, their knowledge of the role of WSUD systems in stormwater management will be improved.