Residents urge Halifax to take action after section of Sir Sandford Fleming Park put up for sale

A rather large section of a park in Halifax is now up for sale, leaving residents and trail lovers wondering what’s next for the popular historical area.

Sir Sandford Fleming Park — better known as Dingle Park — was donated to the city in the 1880s by Fleming, who is best known for creating universal standard time.

The land was donated with the promise to construct the current Dingle Tower, which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the establishment of representative government in Nova Scotia in 1758.

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The park consists of 95 acres of trails, historical monuments and residential areas.

But a chunk of the property — roughly a hectare of vacant land near the popular loop trail — was recently listed for $990,000.00 on viewpoint.ca.

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Many residents believed the land was owned by the city and were shocked to find out that there were areas that were not. Community members say they are now worried about the future of the park.

“Everybody is quite surprised about that. It’s (unknown) to most people that this property (has) belonged to someone else since 1930 to the left over here so when it came up for sale, citizens around here are concerned that it should be sold to the city to maintain its park area that people (have used) to walk around in for the longest time,” said one resident.

Others say they are worried about their scenic backyard disappearing.

“I want to be able to enjoy the walks I’ve always had forever — over 50 years — and I want to be able to do it for many years more,” said another resident.

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Shawn Cleary, councillor for Halifax West Armdale, is the district’s representative. He says he was just as shocked to see the real estate listing, and his concerns were twofold.

“One is: ‘Oh my gosh, how could this possibly be?’ That piece of land that we thought has been parkland for so long is private, but then the other is loss of use of the space,” said Cleary.

Residents told Global News that they want the city to take charge, purchase the land and preserve the space.

Cleary plans to present a motion to council to purchase the land.

He says the city has a reserve fund set aside to purchase land, but due to this year’s budget not yet being complete, he’s unclear of the amount that is available.