Land adjacent to Dartmouth Cove, described a decade ago as a prime location to build a new neighbourhood, will remain mostly gravel and derelict buildings because of the high cost of cleaning up soil contaminated by industrial use going back to the 1800s.

Public Works Minister Kim Masland told reporters the area needs extensive work before it can be used for waterfront development.

"That will be sitting there till we work through the remediation, tens of millions of dollars to remediate that," said Masland at Province House, where the issue came up during Wednesday's question period.

"There is industrial buildings that need to come down. There would have to be geotechnical work to see if the seawall there is going to be strong enough to support any type of construction."

Masland also suggested rising sea levels could create another potential problem.

All those issues were identified in a 2012 multi-volume report titled the Dartmouth Cove Master Plan. The work was a joint effort by the Waterfront Development Corporation (now Build Nova Scotia) and the Halifax Regional Municipality

At the time, the study suggested the cleanup costs would vary greatly depending on how the site was developed, but that some of those costs might be mitigated by building up the land.

"A thick layer of clean fill is to be installed over most of the more contaminated areas of the site to account for sea level rise; this may negate or reduce the amount of remediation required by the intended land use," noted the report.

But in an email to CBC News, Develop Nova Scotia's president and CEO David Benoit wrote, "Without a reasonable expectation that the private sector or a non-profit will build there, there really isn't a business case to do the remediation."

Despite the challenges, the authors of the report concluded, "Dartmouth Cove presents a tremendous opportunity to pioneer a sustainable, mixed-use and vibrant neighbourhood that can enhance the waterfront, breathe new life into downtown Dartmouth, and provide great amenities for the surrounding communities."

NDP Leader Claudia Chender, who represents the area, said it was a more suitable place to build new homes than land the Houston government has fast-tracked for development outside serviced areas of the city, such as Sandy Lake, near Bedford.

She called it "deeply confusing" to push to develop on an environmentally sensitive area, without basics such as sewer and water, and not develop provincially owned land in the heart of the city.

"There is environmental remediation is required, but all of the other developers on that lot are able to do it," said Chender. "King's Wharf, next door, was able to do it."

"As for rising sea levels, I actually think that's specious," she said. "They won't pass the Coastal Protection Act, and yet they won't create housing for 1,000 people in downtown Dartmouth because it's close to Dartmouth Cove, which has been a working harbour for centuries. I just don't accept that."

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