Neighbours cry foul over infilling of coastal wetland in Lunenburg County
Property owner filled part of a pond with gravel and listed the parcel for sale
There's a strip of gravel at the northeast corner of Westhaver Pond that looks like little more than a parking spot, but people who live nearby say it's cause for big concern.
The gravel patch is on a small plot of land a few kilometres down the road from the picturesque town of Mahone Bay, N.S., and was created by infilling rocks into the marshy vegetation that edges the pond. Across the street is Westhaver Beach, and water from the pond and ocean flows back and forth through a culvert under the road.
Locals describe the area as an oasis because of the lush vegetation that provides refuge for dozens of species of wildlife. Some neighbours have friendly competitions over sightings of birds, some of them endangered, that flit across the bulrushes and fill the air with their songs.
Sarah Stevens's father bought land in the area decades ago, and she now lives in the home he built on the pond's western edge.
Stevens is part of a group of residents that says the infilling should not have been allowed. They want municipal rules to change so that similar projects won't happen in the future, at Westhaver Pond or anywhere else.
"One of the biggest issues, and it is a point of principle, is that if people can just randomly, even though it is their private property, dump or infill into environmentally sensitive zones, then how can we help protect the environment?" she said.
In 2016, the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg designated Westhaver Pond as environmentally sensitive, which prohibits development along its perimeter.
The bylaws are clear that structures can't be built in the environmentally sensitive zone, but infilling is a grey area. Ann Caverzan thinks that should be clarified, with infilling barred, too.
Caverzan has lived on the pond for 36 years, one door down from the infill.
She said the problem started in 2021. That's when, according to property records, the municipality listed the lot for sale to recover unpaid taxes.
"Had I known it was up for tax sale … I would have bought it," said Caverzan. "I think we all would have chipped in, or I would have bought it, to protect it and leave it as it was, untouched."
But Caverzan did not know about the tax sale. Municipal records show the current owner bid $3,330, and after tax she paid a total of $3,829.50.
First load of gravel washed away
In 2022, the new owner had truckloads of gravel dumped on a portion of the property, which was briefly listed for sale with an asking price of $465,000. The listing said the land could be further built up through infilling "for building a home or cottage."
The listing was withdrawn, and Caverzan said over the following year, the gravel washed away into the pond.
The property owner did not respond to multiple requests from CBC News for an interview.
This spring, the trucks returned and the property was infilled to its current state, with a rock retaining wall holding loads of gravel in place.
Earlier this month, the property went up for sale again, this time for $225,000. The size of the lot is listed as 8,445 square feet, or about 0.078 hectares.
Caverzan said since regulations prohibit development on the site, the only use she can imagine is a parking spot.
Minor encroachment on the wetland
Caverzan and Stevens asked both the municipality and the province to step in when the infilling was taking place.
"I completely understand your frustration on this matter," one municipal planner told Stevens in an email.
But they said it would be the province's responsibility to stop the work.
A spokesperson for the provincial Environment Department said an officer inspected the site in April and found a "minor encroachment" of fill in the wetland, and asked the owner to remove it. They said the encroachment was removed by the following day.
The province said there have been no further violations under the Environment Act or its regulations. The spokesperson said officers have visited a total of four times over the past month, and they will continue to monitor the property during routine work in the area.
That step from the province did not satisfy Caverzan or Stevens, who want all the rocks removed.
"That's the big ask," said Caverzan.
Stevens said for her, this case exemplifies a broader issue she sees playing out across the province: a competition between environmental protection and development.
She pointed to the scrapping of the Coastal Protection Act as a prime example.
In 2019, Nova Scotia passed the Coastal Protection Act, a piece of legislation that was supposed to outline how property owners could build on their land amid the threat of climate change, sea level rise and coastal flooding and erosion.
But the law was never enacted, and earlier this year, Environment Minister Tim Halman said it won't be. Instead, Halman said the province would provide resources for property owners to help them make development choices, and support municipalities to regulate coastal protection in their communities.
"The responsibility for enforcement has been bounced to the municipalities — and many of them, there isn't a mechanism for them to do that enforcement," said Stevens.
The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg is working on its own coastal protection regulations, and a draft passed first reading at council this week. The regulations include a stipulation that development cannot happen within 30 metres of a coastal wetland.
But Coun. Kacy Petersen DeLong said rules around infilling remain hazy in the new regulations.
She said it would take the introduction of another policy, outside the coastal protection regulations, to address infilling.
Petersen DeLong said it's not an easy solution, but she wants to see it happen, and she wants future municipal tax sales or property divestments to have an additional layer of oversight that considers conservation value.
"My hope is that this will provide council an opportunity to discuss how we can tighten up zoning regulations and bylaws and hopefully to not have issues like this crop up in the future," she said.
Caverzan, Stevens and some of their neighbours around the pond will present their concerns to municipal council at a public meeting next week.
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