RV park appeal to be heard
UARB to hear some arguments of opponents of proposed Big Pond development
A provincial tribunal is set to hear an appeal of a CBRM decision to amend its land-use bylaw to allow for the development of an RV park and campground on the south shore of the Bras d’Or Lake.
The appellant is a group of Big Pond Centre residents that believes the Cape Breton Regional Municipality council did not abide by the spirt of its own municipal planning strategy when it voted 7-6 in March to approve an amendment application by Alberta developer Chris Skidmore to rezone a parcel of land in Big Pond Centre for the project.
The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Sydney with additional time set aside that evening and on Thursday and Friday if necessary.
But group spokesman Mike Britten, who resides near the RV park’s proposed location 40 km west of Sydney, said hopes for a reversal of the CBRM council decision were dimmed last month when the UARB decreed that it would not consider a couple of the group’s key environmental arguments.
“We’re not pointing a finger at the board or saying the board is making a wrong decision here — the board made a very good explanation in terms of the way the legislation is written and what their mandate it,” said Britten.
“But, at the same time, it’s important that the public understand what is going on here and that the chances of an environmental assessment happening here are almost nil.”
Britten did point out that an environment assessment would be triggered if two or more hectares of land is altered or destroyed.
In launching its appeal, the appellant group challenged council’s decision on the basis that the elected body’s vote did not adhere to its own planning strategy, which essentially instructed councillors to only consider the amendment application from the perspectives of visual compatibility, dust or fumes emanating from the site, traffic attracted to and leading from the site, and noise emanating from the development.
The group also contends that council should continue to support the concept of an intermunicipal plan for the Bras d’Or Lake focused on environmental remediation through the participation of the three levels of government, First Nations communities and the Bras d’Or Lake Stewardship Society. Despite the omission of the appellant group’s key environmental arguments, Britten said the project’s opponents will continue their efforts to ensure that the potential effects of the development on the environment are addressed.
“It really hurt — it’s a setback — but I think the thing it really shows is that all stakeholders on the Bras d’Or Lakes have to start looking at how development is going to be regulated, monitored and enforced on the lakes, because if we don’t we could end up in a bad way in the future,” he said.
“We have to be really careful where we place development on the lake and we have to make sure the lake can handle it, especially the 400 or so barachoises that are part of the marine ecosystem of the lake — if you start destroying those, then the lake is going to be dead, maybe not in my lifetime, but if we keep going like this we’re not being very responsible stewards. “We’re not anti-development, we’re just saying ‘Do it right’, but that seems to be falling on deaf ears.”
The UARB hearing is set to start Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. with an evening session scheduled for 6:30 p.m. The public hearing is taking place in the Mariner Ball Room in the Holiday Inn in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the latest social media post by the project developers states that the Ceilidh on the Lakes RV park and campground has received an overwhelming number of inquiries and requests for seasonal sites. The message indicated that 170 sites will be available on a seasonal basis.
The first phase of the development calls for 211 fully-serviced sites on land that extends from Highway 4 to the shores of the pond, or barachois, known as Lochmore harbour.