Derek and Angel Nicholson have been living in Bible Hill, N.S. for more than two years now, making the move to a house in the area to accommodate a growing family.
The couple are guardians to their grandchild alongside living with a son with autism and a daughter who is back home while paying off student loans from getting her teaching degree.
“Both my husband and myself have different disabilities, so (our daughter) helps us around the house as well as looking after our grandson,” said Angel.
A lack of space in the main house for everyone to live comfortably led the Nicholsons to invest in renovating the old farmhouse on their property into a secondary suite for their daughter to live in.
“We got building permits from (the municipality) saying we could do all this work in the building and I could spend all the money,” said Derek. “And we spent all the money and now it’s an accessory building.”
Derek invested his retirement savings and disability awarded from his time in the military into renovating the tiny home, which is now legally an accessory building with Colchester County — but not habitable according to bylaws for the municipality’s central zone.
“It’s like they’re fighting with us tooth and nail over something that shouldn’t even be an issue,” said Derek.
The couple heard the province’s announcement incentivizing the building of secondary units for family members or to provide affordable housing options and believed that was the go-ahead approval for their daughter to move in.
“The provincial government came down with, ‘Let’s build backyard suites,’ so we’re like, ‘Great, you can move in!’ And she moved in,” said Angel.
The pair were then surprised to receive a notice to ‘Cease Residential Occupancy’ on the door of the secondary unit behind their home back in January.
“We received a letter from the county that there had been a complaint that somebody was living in the unit, and we were quite frank with them and said, ‘Yup, our daughter is living here because she has no other place to go. She would end up homeless.'”
Colchester Mayor Christine Blair says the county is in the process of finalizing a municipal planning strategy and land use bylaw for the entire county — part of which will look into secondary suites.
However, no formal requests to amend the planning documents to allow secondary units have been made.
“We have our rules in place as they currently exist. If there’s no zoning, you can do it; if there is zoning, you follow the rules,” Blair said.
“Those are the bylaws that we have in place and you get your permits and you deal with it accordingly.”
The Department of Municipal Affairs and Housing state that, “municipal building requirements vary across the province…We understand the municipality is aware and encourage the family to continue discussions with them on this matter.”
Blair says secondary suites will be reviewed before the Dec. 31, 2024 deadline for the county’s planning strategy, and there will be a lot of public input in decision making.
“I think with the staff that we have and with public input, the municipality of Colchester will do the best that it possibly can in order to accommodate options that the public will appreciate,” Blair said.
For the Nicholsons, they hope updates are considered for the bylaw in question to allow for these changes amid a housing crisis — going so far as to start a petition to see that an amendment is made.
“Really confused and frustrated that the county hasn’t kept up to date with the bylaws,” Angel said.
“We’ve lived in many places because of the military experience and those communities — even 20, 30 years ago — were allowing backyard granny suites. So, it’s not a new issue with having three generations living on the same property. I just don’t understand why they’re pushing back at us.”
For now, the municipality does not allow detached secondary suites on a property within the central zone of the county.
The Nicholsons plan on attending an upcoming planning committee meeting to voice their hopes for reconsideration.
“As a father, I’m definitely not going to throw my daughter out on the street,” said Derek. “It’s just not going to happen.”
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