Plans to develop a park at Tanah Merah will proceed, despite a quarter of a million dollars spent on a flood-prone site deemed unfit for use.
Tanah Merah has a “deficit” of parks, with plans to build a recreational park dating back to 1992.
While progress ebbed and flowed over the years, Logan City Council finally acquired a block along Murrays Road in 2021 for $210,000.
Work commenced on park concept designs and in September 2023, a construction start date was set for January this year.
But construction never commenced because council determined the block was too wet.
The city’s parks manager said the site was “completely inundated” during the 2022 floods and has remained “very wet” ever since as the soil type retains too much water.
In 2023 the team tried to fence the site, but it was too wet to erect fencing.
“We have looked at various options to try and meet this demand, and we have landed at a position where we just don’t think it is feasible for a number of reasons,” the park manager said.
“When you go down there, we saw a snake, there are mosquitoes, the grass is very high.
“We just think that it is not a good idea to build there.”
A council report indicates various alternatives for constructing a playground on the site were explored, including drainage channels, relocating to a neighbouring block, and developing in “higher and drier areas,” but none were deemed feasible.
One councillor criticised the parks department for continuing with plans despite knowing the block flooded.
“It was a block we knew that flooded – we should never have spent money,” Cr Natalie Willcocks said at the meeting.
The parks manager said the team “didn’t understand the water-holding capability” of the land at the time.
“They knew that it floods, but they weren’t aware that it retains the water that it does,” he said.
He said this was a “very rare outcome”.
Council ultimately voted not to embellish the site, and instead investigate alternative land for a park.
A council spokesperson claimed $48,800 of costs had been incurred so far.
The Murrays Road block could be used for vegetation offsetting or be sold back to Transport and Main Roads, according to the parks manager.
He said a “more robust system” had since been developed so council doesn’t make “similar mistakes”.
