By Linda Baker (NY Times)
VICTORIA, British Columbia — Rare are the homeowners who welcome a sewage treatment plant in their backyards. But at Dockside Green, a 15-acre mixed-use development being built just north of this city’s downtown harbor, neighborhood utilities are less a cause for alarm than part of the amenity package.
“These are our best-selling units,” said Joe Van Belleghem, a local developer who won a city-sponsored competition in 2004 to develop Dockside Green. On a recent Friday afternoon, Mr. Van Belleghem was on site, pointing to ground-floor condominiums with decks jutting over a network of ponds and waterways containing native plants, otters and ducks.
The artificial creek circulates wastewater from an adjacent underground sewage treatment plant. That water is also used to flush toilets and irrigate the landscape — a closed system that helps reduce water bills for residents, provides a refuge for wildlife and “improves the marketability of the space,” Mr. Van Belleghem said.
“So it’s all integrated: the economic, the environmental, the social,” he added.
The holistic design is the hallmark of Dockside Green, which will eventually encompass 1.3 million square feet, including 26 buildings and 2,500 residents. READ MORE >>
via www.nytimes.com
