It’s been 10 years since the municipality laid out its intention to create a regional park on a massive green space just outside the heart of Halifax. But so far, there’s been little movement on the plan.
“Despite making it crystal clear one decade ago in the regional plan that they (HRM) would acquire these lands, they’ve done nothing,” said Raymond Plourde, wilderness coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre.
“Two large pieces of land have changed hands, they’ve come on the market in that time, and they made no move to purchase them.”
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In the 2006 Regional Municipal Planning Strategy, the municipality committed to creating a regional park at Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes (BMBCL).
The massive area of wilderness lies on the edge of Halifax, just behind Bayers Lake Business park, between Hammonds Plains Road and St. Margaret’s Bay Road.
Accessible by transit, it’s a nature lover’s paradise full of back country hiking and canoeing on several lakes including Fox Lake, Susie Lake, Quarry Lake and Birch Cove lakes.
In 2009, over 4,000 acres of the green space was deemed Crown land by the province and is designated under the Wilderness Areas Protection Act.
The province contributed this Crown land towards the creation of the municipality’s regional park.
In 2006, the regional plan included a conceptual boundary for the park that’s adjacent to the massive chunk of Crown land. Over 1,000 acres of the conceptual boundary is private land owned by Annapolis Group Inc. and Susie Lake Developments Ltd.
Advocates of the Blue Mountain Birch Cove Lakes park are furious that none of that private land has been acquired in the last decade.
District 12 Councillor Reg Rankin says the municipality and the developers haven’t been able to see eye to eye.
“Really there’s two parties with two sets of interests. We are a developer, if you will, HRM, trying to develop a park. The land owners are trying to develop housing,” Rankin said, adding there is a need for some of both.
A facilitator was appointed in 2014 to negotiate a final boundary between the developers and the municipality.
Justice Heather Robertson released her report this month and the outcome isn’t sitting well with regional park advocates.
“The report was supposed to facilitate a negotiation to obtain those lands but its failed to reach an agreement,” Plourde said.
“So this report has failed in its primary purpose and now we’re no further ahead than we were 10 years ago.”
Much of the land is categorized as urban reserve, meaning developments can’t be considered there for the next decade.
But Robertson’s report suggests that housing development can go ahead in some of the area that was supposed to belong to the regional park.
“The surrounding lands were meant to be acquired by the city over time from private landowners in order to create the high-intensity front country use where more people would go,” Plourde said.
The report suggests that housing development in the area will allow people easier access to the wilderness area and lakes.
Annapolis Group Inc. has offered to sell 210 acres of parkland to the municipality for a price tag of $6 million. The municipality hasn’t budged on the offer because the appraised value they’ve given the land is $2.8 million.
“Are we up for that kind of money? Some people say, ‘no question, Reg, just find the money’, and I say, is that responsible?” Rankin said.
The municipality hosted a public meeting on June 20 to present the report but no public comments were allowed to be recorded.
The only comments being accepted by the municipality are written submissions that will be accepted until July 4.
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