Trails association calling for details on Bayers Lake expansion
Posted Apr 16, 2012 07:11:17 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The members of a Halifax trails association say the city isn’t communicating with them about the pending sale of land to a developer who plans to expand the Bayers Lake business park.
The Halifax North West Trails Association will host a public meeting tonight to review the status of the development and potential impact on the adjacent Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area.
The municipality is currently negotiating with Banc Developments over the sale of 180 acres of public land in the Bayers Lake Business Park.
Association member Bruce Smith tells News 95.7 the association has secured protection for the eastern border of the area, although the western section and the lands north of the watershed ridgeline remain “unprotected.”
HRM’s planning department has said it wants to preserve viewplanes and not impact the water, but Smith said the opposite seems to be in the works.
“The latest development plans show the road for the new development coming in right over the high ridgeland in that area, which would allow for development on either side of the road,” said Smith. “That’s a great concern to us because all the runoff from construction, and the roads and buildings and after construction is complete, will impact the Birch Cove lakes negatively.”
The association says it’s had no response to recent requests for updates from HRM planning staff to procure private land for protection as a designated regional park.
“We really had no response,” said HNWTA chair Bob MacDonald. “So, we’re kind of concerned. Things are very quiet on the HRM front. We’re having difficulty communicating with them.”
However, a representative of the municipality says establishing a regional park is part of the development plan, although not all aspects of the plan can be made public at this time.
“Anytime we do real estate transactions, that’s one of the ways we’re allowed to go in-camera with council,” said spokesperson Shaune MacKinlay. “That’s because negotiations, when it comes to the sale of property, are sensitive negotiations. When they are concluded they are a matter of the public record.”
Smith says the association will hold a public meeting tonight to review the watershed boundary and a watershed study currently underway.
“We’re not anti-development. We want to balance development,” said HNWTA member Bruce Smith. “We’re asking HRM and the developer to pull their development back to the ridgeline, which is also the watershed line of the lands that they have for sale.”
A representative from the Nova Scotia Department of Environment is expected to attend the meeting which is being held at the Keshen Goodman Library at 7 p.m.
