“We need to be creative and think outside the mandated boxes. If we do so, we create a general model for satisfying the three main demands [to conserve environmentally sensitive lands, increase housing and make it profitable to do both] that also apply elsewhere in HRM, even across Canada.”
View looking towards the southwest extremity of Sandy Lake. Clearcuts that can be observed at top right are on some of the land proposed for fast-tracked development. Those lands also lie within a corridor for movement of wildlife on and off of the Chebucto Peninsula and locally and include headwater streams for Sandy Lake. Click on image for larger version
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In an op-ed in the Chronicle Herald published on July 2, 2022, Bluff Trail founder & Philosophy Prof (retired) Richmond Campbell suggests that land swaps could be a win-win-win solution to the the ‘Sandy Lake versus Development Dilemma’.
In such swaps, developers would acquire land suitable for fast-tracked housing development currently held by HRM or the provincial government in exchange for environmentally vulnerable land owned by the developer. It would a be a win-win-win, says Campbell:
1. for environmentalists wanting to conserve biodiversity, to fight climate change, and to preserve the recreational and educational values at Sandy Lake;
2. for those who rightly recognize the need for fast-tracking housing;
3. for the developers who expect to make a profit in building the needed housing and who respect the environment.
Specific proposals and an apparent willingness of the developer to consider land swaps are cited in a 4 page document prepared by the The Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park Coalition for a meeting with the Housing Task Force earlier this year. Continue reading
