Horseshoe Farm Park will be eco-friendly

In 2007 a coalition of local citizen activists including the Capital Group Sierra Club, the N.C. Wildlife Federation and the Wake Audubon Society won a battle to develop Horseshoe Farm park as passive recreational area instead of an intensive use park. Now, the city has taken it a step further and has decided that the 146 acre park sitting on an oxbow of the Neuse River will be built using innovative, environmental friendly designs and construction methods.

Plans are still being drawn up, Bentley said, but design and construction methods being considered include special concrete for parking lots that allows water to seep through instead of running off into the Neuse River, plantings that do not need to be watered and would help the park be built without the need for city water, and "zero waste" construction methods.

"Anything you grade or cut down or dig up, you use on site," Bentley said. "You don't put anything in the landfill."

It's really impressive that they can develop zero waste construction methods. Having worked on construction sites before I know there is a lot of waste created during every step. The project is part of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden.

I think the city really got the message that those citizen activists were sending back in 2007. Hopefully we'll see more of this in the future.