July 5, 2007 Letter from KCC urging MLA Michael Baker to take action.
From: Marion Homer Kingsburg Coastal Conservancy July 5, 2007
to: Hon. Michael Baker
re: Where does the buck stop?
Hello Mr. Baker,
I am writing this letter as a followup to our in-person discussion in January, 2007. At that meeting, I described to you how difficult it is to get straight answers on land use questions. The reason for the difficulty is the fragmented responsibility for the various aspects of getting a structure built in a rural area.
At our meeting, you said you would work to get the Dept. of Environment & Labour, the Dept. of Natural Resources, and the Municipalities together to document who is responsible for what. We in District 3 of the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg are now in a situation where confusion reigns, and everyone suffers. Nova Scotia desperately needs one provincial office that can tell a person whether or not it is legal to build a structure in a particular place.
Here’s the background for the current problem.
- (Mr. X) had a dream of retiring by the ocean. He bought his acre of heaven in Rose Bay, and hired a contractor to start dumping fill onto his land to eliminate wet areas and create a driveway.
- A neighbor noticed the dumping, and called DEL. This was last winter.
- We zoom forward to July. (Mr. X) tells someone he still plans to infill 12,000 square feet to create a house lot.
- KCC and other individuals are livid that an area that is regularly flooded by high tides can be infilled.
We call DEL and DNR and the municipality.
- The municipality says it cannot get involved until the person has a septic permit.
- DNR says he can’t dump on salt marsh, but since there is freshwater running into the area as well, maybe he can dump.
- DEL identifies one area of a certain grass type and says he can’t dump there, but other areas are OK – even though they are also flooded by the tide. DEL cautions the landowner that it will be very hard, or impossible, to get a septic permit, but that fact is not connected to dumping, so he can dump to his heart’s content, until his wallet is empty, and the animal habitats are destroyed.
- Even though District 3 has bylaws specifying set-backs from water, and these may preclude construction, the municipality is not involved until septic has been approved.
- Even though the highway department has minimum set-back requirements, they do not come into play until the owner is ready to build.
- Even though banks may refuse a mortgage, and insurance companies may refuse to insure a house sitting where storm tides could flood it, these factors do not come into play until after the infilling.
Poor (Mr. X) already paid a significant sum for his dream property, thinking he could build there, and now he can spend a fortune on infill, only to find out that one of these other factors may preclude building. And, meanwhile, bird habitat is lost and everyone gets more and more angry and frustrated.
There has to be a better way! We need a “front door” that will tie all the pieces together, protect the environment, and give potential builders a full and reliable picture of what is possible.
But that will take time, and right now, before more money and energy are wasted, (Mr. X) and KCC and (Family Y), who are trying to sell a house lot near Mr. X, and the realtor, all need answers.
Please help us pull the pieces together into a sensible whole.
Thank you, Marion Homer