Cooper Creek Development of Regional Impact
Benderson Development Company
Manatee County, FL
Water Resource Associates has been actively involved in providing full service civil engineering and environmental services for Benderson Development Company over the past 10 years. Benderson is the largest privately held owner of retail space in the U.S. WRA is currently providing site civil design for the final phase of an 8 year, 350 acre mixed-use development of regional impact (DRI) located in Manatee County, FL. The Cooper Creek DRI consists of a multiple land uses including multi-family residential, commercial-office, recreational, and commercial-retail. The project design includes the site planning and civil site infrastructure design for each individual phase of the multi-phase development. Major components of the design and permitting of the project were the extensive floodplain, stormwater, and wetland designs. WRA developed a regional floodplain model for CooperCreek utilizing HEC-2 floodplain modeling software to optimize the development potential of the site, which received acceptance by all regulatory agencies. Dual use surface water management systems were designed to meet the criteria for 100-yr flood control and storm water attenuation. The presence of a regionally significant wetland system within the DRI posed significant design challenges. WRA developed site-specific technologies to maximize the developable acreage, including the first successful mitigation transplant of the wetland hardwood
Fraxinus in Florida
, a specific hydrologic/hydraulic model of the wetland system to allow its use for mitigation, and dual use of wetlands for stormwater management. Design fees were $800,000 and the anticipated Construction Cost- $15M.
