Sowing seeds of the future
New farmers market topped with huge rooftop garden
By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter
Fri. Jul 9 - 4:54 AM

Kelly Graves works on the rooftop garden Thursday that will be part of the new Seaport Farmers’ Market in Halifax. (CHRISTIAN LAFORCE / Staff)

THE GREEN ROOF under construction at Halifax’s Seaport Farmers’ Market is a reflection of the agrarian businesses that will soon occupy the waterfront space, says Dieter Spillner of Serendipity Gardens in Sheffield Mills in the Annapolis Valley.
"I think it’s very appropriate," he said in an interview Thursday on the market’s dramatic roof, which will be home to 46,000 plants by the time the Pier 20 facility has its planned grand opening in September. "It reflects our day-to-day life."
Spillner, who sells cut flowers and plants, is one of more than100 vendors moving from the Halifax Farmers’ Market in the Keith’s Brewery building to the new 4,050-square-metre market, which is more than twice the size of the old location.
Along with the green roof, which acts as a natural air conditioner, the $12-million complex includes four windmills that will generate electricity, a water collection system that will be used to feed the garden, flush toilets and clean floors, and four rectangular glass towers that will provide abundant natural light.
The rooftop garden will contain a variety of succulents — hardy enough to survive Maritime winters — on either side of a planked boardwalk that will afford market patrons a spectacular harbour view.
Spillner, who was contracted to plant the lined garden, has done similar work, including the roof garden at Halifax’s Embassy Towers many years ago.
"It’s very practical in cities," he said, adding that the new market also employs innovative energy-recovery ventilators that use energy from exhausted building air to treat incoming air.
Market manager Fred Kilcup said the 16,000-square-foot green roof is one of the largest in North America.
"As the seasons change, different plant varieties will bloom and change colour," he said.
Kilcup said the roof will last 25 years, 10 years longer than a conventional roof, and is capable of recovering four million litres of water a year.
Collected roof water will also feed a living wall inside the market building that will be covered with tropical plants from Wittenburg Nursery in Stewiacke, another market vendor, he said.
The new market is being funded by three levels of government, a community economic development investment fund that has raised $1.8 million and its vendors, who pay table fees.
It will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday.
About 40 market vendors have signed a lease to remain at the historic Keith’s space, which is open on Saturday and charges lower table fees.
Spillner, who was at the old site for eight years, can’t understand why some vendors wanted to stay there.
"Anybody that’s anybody at the market will be here," he said, including cheese makers That Dutchman’s Farm of Upper Economy and Sweet William’s Country Sausage of Stewiacke. "It’s their loss."

‘As the seasons change, different plant varieties will bloom and change colour.’
Seaport Farmers’ Market manager FRED KILCUP.



Eco-industrial park set to go
Ottawa contributes $220,000 to project
By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau
Fri. Jul 9 - 4:54 AM

CHESTER — Work will begin this summer on Nova Scotia’s first eco-industrial park after Ottawa committed money Thursday.
South Shore St. Margarets MP Gerald Keddy announced $220,000 in funding Thursday for the Chester eco-industrial park, adjacent to the Kaizer Meadow Landfill. With that in place, the first tenant, a business that cleans industrial fishing nets, will begin construction of its $500,000 facility this summer.
Keddy said the money will help fund the development of the eco-industrial park, including roadways, lot clearing and the insulation of power lines and water pipes.
"The park will be a groundbreaking project dedicated exclusively to environmental industries and firms related directly to sustainable development."
Keddy said proposed activities for the park include the development of a research centre and facilities for mobile dewatering, alternative landfill covering, aquaculture and landfill operation training.
Allen Webber, the warden for the Municipality of the District of Chester, said the federal funds are "critical in moving this initiative forward."
Webber said the municipality has long been planning to capitalize on its second-generation landfill by creating an industrial park in which businesses can benefit from the services the landfill provides and the products its generates.
For example, businesses that locate there would not have to pay to have their waste trucked away because it could be treated right there, Webber said. And they could use materials and recyclables dropped off at the facility, tap into the millions upon millions of gallons of industrial water, draw upon wind power being generated and tested at the site, and tap into thermal energy that’s under the landfill.
Webber said the businesses’ buildings must also be built to environmental standards if they want to be part of the park.
He said the eco-industrial park would create employment and economic activity while diverting waste, "providing an opportunity both for us and the business world that isn’t being tapped at the moment."
The site covers 324 hectares. This first phase about to be developed covers 40.5 hectares.
"It’s a dream at this moment," Webber said. "We have one tenant, and that’s good and that’s where it starts."
Keddy also announced $25,000 to revitalize Big Tancook Island’s recreation centre. He said the money will go to such improvements as roof repairs, window replacements, improved building access, and plumbing and electrical upgrades.
Rosa Cross said the centre is vital to the lives of the 110 year-round residents, as well as the island’s summer residents and the increasing number of tourists who visit.
While the ferry gives dependable transportation to the mainland, residents’ lives are restricted by the fact they live on an island.
"That’s why our community centre is so important to us," Cross said. "It’s the focal point for all events on the island, whether it be dances or card games or emergency response training. It’s used for fundraising not only for the centre itself, but also for the local emergency response team and for the elementary school."
The centre was built in 1975 when the island’s population was almost triple what it is today. The centre has been running with a net loss in recent years, and Cross said "any reserve funds are slowly dwindling."
She said the community could not do the necessary upgrades without the federal commitment announced Thursday.


Viewplanes vs. development focus of Dartmouth meeting
Staff tells public session city wants to clarify sightlines in need of protection
By DAVENE JEFFREY Staff Reporter
Thu. Jul 8 - 4:53 AM


Dartmouth residents and developers who attended a public meeting Wednesday weren’t too concerned about protecting views from a city golf course.
"Brightwood by its nature is not public," said businessman Patrick O’Regan, a Dartmouth resident.
"You’re putting the needs of private members ahead of the public’s."
O’Regan was among fewer than two dozen members of the public who attended the evening meeting at the Findlay Centre in Dartmouth.
Halifax Regional Municipality hired CBCL Ltd. to study protected viewplanes from the Brightwood Golf and Country Club and the Dartmouth Common.
City planner Mitch Dickey said the study was needed to clarify the viewplanes and to look at others that may be worth protecting.
"We’re trying to protect important visual resources," Dickey said, while at the same time defining the viewplane parameters so city staff can answer development questions.
The viewplane from the golf course cuts a wide swath across the Dartmouth waterfront.
Wide viewplanes hamper future development in areas like the marshalling yards, said Ross Cantwell of the Waterfront Development Corp., which is looking at building an apartment complex on the Dartmouth waterfront near the Kings Wharf development.
It’s more cost-effective to build taller buildings on smaller parcels of infilled land, Cantwell said. There is room for a highrise or two to spike up, which would increase the downtown population density while still preserving much of the view from the Common, he said.
And density is what is required for Dartmouth’s downtown to come alive again, O’Regan said.
"Dartmouth is dying for rejuvenation," said developer Tony Maskine, a Dartmouth property owner.
Resident Trevor Parsons told the group he is concerned about the views from the Common and he worries that installing a soccer pitch there, as is being talked about, would limit the general public’s use of the park and ability to enjoy the views.
But summer is a poor time to try to sample public opinion, said resident John May.
And Frances Howard told the group she believes city staff ignore the opinions of Dartmouth residents and she’s not taking their stated intention to define the viewplanes at face value.
"I’m very suspicious they’ve got something up their sleeve," she said.
( djeffrey@herald.ca)