Resident asks for coastal planning

“What’s the plan?”

Nora Peach and her daughter Judith have asked Municipality of Digby council to consider a municipal planning strategy for Digby Neck. “With no land use planning in place, residents have not yet had the chance to decide for themselves how they want Digby Neck to develop in the future,” Peach told council at its committee of the whole meeting on March 12.

She suggests council start with pubic meetings to put together a vision for the future of the long skinny spit of land.

Peach’s own personal concerns, the ones that inspired her to ask for planning, include speculative non-residential land ownership, loss of public access to beaches and coastal areas, erosion or pollution of coastal areas due to shorefront development, and protection of important wildlife habitat or ecological features.

She worries that real estate developers could drive up property prices and taxes on the Neck beyond the reach of locals.

Peach says there are many ‘k-roads’ that give access to the beach but she worries that newcomers might buy neighboring properties and try to close off access. “That access is one of the things very unique to Nova Scotia, you can get down to the beach. In the northeastern U.S., you can’t get to the beach. The coastline is all in private hands there. “This legal access along right of ways is a valuable asset.”

She says rock barriers along shore lines to stop erosion often just shift the erosion farther down the beach, and cutting a beach off from its sediment supply means the beach eventually washes out.

She says beaches where clams are harvested should be protected from heavy cottage development.

She also points out that large industrial projects are looking to set up business on the Neck and there is no zoning to describe what is compatible with traditional uses, what is desired and let alone what is permitted.

Warden Jim Thurber said he is not sure if council wants to proceed with planning for one small section of the district or do the whole municipality at once. “A lot of these coastal issues might apply to other areas in the district, too.”

He cautioned that council is involved in a livestock bylaw process right now. “We’ve been working on that one a long time and it didn’t go right. When we get through that we need to sit down and figure out what we did wrong, why it has taken four years.”

Deputy warden Jimmy MacAlpine added that one thing council learned is that the Planning Advisory Council would not head up a planning project. “We’d have to form a community advisory group to spearhead that.”

He also pointed out how difficult it is to get public input. “We had community meetings recently about recreation in the municipality and the turnout was not great. That makes it very difficult to gauge how the community feels.

Coun. Linda Gregory pointed out that the Digby Area Recreation Commission will be working on a project this summer to at least identify the public K-roads throughout the municipality.

Thurber said the presentation would figure in future council discussions about planning.

Peach herself joined the Planning Advisory Council two moths ago and says she will push for the county to act.

jriley@digbycourier.ca