'We're losing the coastline': Residents question private wall built at well-loved N.S. beach
'We're losing the coastline': Residents question private wall built at well-loved N.S. beach
The 1.6 kilometre-long stretch of white sand at Crescent Beach in Nova Scotia’s Lunenburg County is a popular beach destination in the province.
At its far end, there’s a smaller portion of the beach known as “Little Crescent” that’s popular with locals for its secluded distance from the main attraction, and its often warmer ocean waters.
The rock wall built at Little Crescent Beach is pictured. (Heidi Petracek/CTV Atlantic)But now, its landscape has changed – a large rock wall has been erected at Little Crescent, and some residents aren’t happy.
“There’s a lot of people who are very concerned about the ecological impacts,” says Lucy Hendrixson.
Those concerns, she says, are not only about the beach, but also about the fish habitat in the bay and in a large tidal wetland just behind the construction site.
“And so, there’s some concerns about the development impacting that and just sort of encroaching on that,” she adds.
The land is privately owned by well-known Halifax developer Hossein Mousavi, who was granted a municipal building permit in March to construct three family cottages in the area.
But in order to build the large retaining rock wall, a permit was required from the province’s Department of Natural Resources and Renewables to allow vehicles to access the beach for construction.
The department confirms that was approved.
However, residents now believe the wall encroaches on the beach’s high-water mark, which means it would infringe on Crown land.
But in an email statement to CTV News, Mousavi says the wall, which was built to replace existing sea walls that had been badly damaged, follows the rules.
“Our licensed surveyor identified the OHWM [ordinary high-water mark] and proposed siting the new wall on top of the pre-existing walls and, in some cases, set stones back one or two feet above the OHWM,” writes Mousavi in part.
He says the wall was part of his submission to the municipality to build two family cottages, one on each of his two shoreline properties.
Mousavi continues, “We love and want to protect the sensitive wetlands that wind through our properties…we sited our cottages and infrastructure closer to the beach sides of our properties. That’s why our construction plans include a sea wall and measures to avoid disturbing the wetlands entirely.”
Local photographer Peter Barss can see Crescent Beach from his house, and took his camera on Sunday to Little Crescent an hour after high tide.
His images show the ocean surf hitting the stone wall.
“I think it’s too bad that the law allows this kind of development, but it does,” says Barss.
He was among the many Nova Scotians who fought a public battle to protect Owls Head from development, a movement which resulted in the designation of 266 hectares in Little Harbour, N.S., as a provincial park last year.
“I just think it’s tragic that politicians and citizens didn’t see this kind of thing coming,” he says. “More and more coast areas are being closed off by people who claim the land to be theirs and theirs alone.”
“’No trespassing’ signs, boulders,” he adds. “We’re losing the coastline.”
Barss and Hendrixson are now part of a growing group of locals who are joining together to try to see what can be done.
They say it’s not just about the one particular development, but about similar situations occurring throughout the province.
“I think that this is a call to the residents of Nova Scotia, to the District of the Municipality of Lunenburg, that we really need to do something, we need land bylaws and we need zoning so that continuing to develop the coastline doesn’t happen,” Hendrixson says.
She points to the previous Liberal government’s Coastal Protection Act, which was passed in the legislature in 2019, but never enacted into law.
The act is intended to set provincewide rules for what’s allowed along coastlines, including limits on how close construction can be to the shore.
Back in 2019, an environment department official said about 60,000 properties already touch saltwater in the province.
Climate change experts have said coastal damage from intense weather systems, such as post-tropical storm Fiona, are a new reality for the east coast.
More reason, says Hendrixson, why the new regulations need to be put in place.
“We all have to work together to protect the coastline,” she says. “Because that land that’s being developed behind us, it was all coastal grasslands, it was vegetation, it was where nature lived.”
Late Wednesday afternoon, the mayor of the municipality released a statement on the issue at Little Crescent, stating the district is “deeply concerned.”
“Council is calling upon Province of Nova Scotia to immediately implement the Coastal Protection Act regulations,” writes Carolyn Bolivar-Getson.
“The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg echoes the community’s concerns.”
Meanwhile, the minister of natural resources and renewables says department staff have visited the site several times to inspect the wall, most recently on Tuesday.
At Province House Wednesday, Tory Rushton told CTV News he was waiting to hear back on whether a survey is needed.
“If it does go on to the high-water mark, there certainly have to be conversations taking place,” he said.
“I’ve asked my director to give me the information so I can be prepared to make a decision,” Rushton added.
Nova Scotia’s minister of environment and climate change says his department deals with the site in terms of making sure any work does not disturb the nearby wetland.
“I had inspectors out there on three occasions,” said Timothy Halman. “My staff is telling me there’s no evidence at this juncture of a wetland alteration.”
Hendrixson’s group is hosting a public information meeting Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Petite Riviere Fire Hall for anyone who has questions.
CTV’s attempts to contact the landowner, Hossein Mousavi, have so far been unsuccessful.
A portion of the rock wall built at Little Crescent Beach is pictured. (Heidi Petracek/CTV Atlantic)
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
The father of Tori Stafford, an Ontario girl who was murdered in 2009, says the latest decision to transfer convicted killer Paul Bernardo to a minimum security prison is a 'slap in the face' to all murder victims' families.
Donald Trump said Thursday that he was indicted for mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw.
A little white pill has given Syrian President Bashar Assad powerful leverage with his Arab neighbours, who have been willing to bring him out of pariah status in hopes he will stop the flow of highly addictive Captagon amphetamines out of Syria.
Smoke and flames continue to engulf much of Canada, with Alberta imposing new evacuation orders, Manitoba bracing for heavy, lightning-generating thunderstorms and high wildfire risks and poor air quality from coast to coast.
'Kids are being massacred in their schools, literally … their heads are being decapitated because of the power of an assault bullet, (which) is unlike anything, no other weapon,' says gun violence prevention activist Samuel Schwartz, who is among the organizers of a sit-in demanding change on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Video has surfaced showing a Mississauga, Ont. transit bus plowing into stopped traffic in a crash that left one person dead and at least eight injured on Thursday morning.
Quebec's precarious wildfire situation is expected to remain stable over the next 48 hours but residents displaced by the raging forest fires likely won't be able to return home until early next week, Premier Francois Legault said Thursday.
An Ontario man charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the death of Claudia Iacono, the daughter-in-law of the late Montreal Mafia associate Moreno Gallo, was arrested the day after the killing in Ontario on unrelated drug charges, public records show.
Lyme disease in Quebec was back on the rise in 2021, following a brief slowdown in 2020. Of the 650 cases of Lyme disease acquired in Quebec, Estrie was again the most affected region. With 452 cases, it accounts for nearly 70 per cent of all infections in the province.
Court records show defrocked Oblate priest Eric Dejaeger is facing six charges of indecent assault and two charges of sexual assault for crimes he allegedly committed in Nunavut between 1978 and 1982.
The number of active wildfires in northern Ontario has grown, but more of them are under control as the fight continues. Here is what you need to know.
Thousands of Canadians have had to leave their homes in several provinces over the last few weeks due to forest fires. Luckily, there are steps you can take to protect your property, both prior to an evacuation and during.
After nearly three weeks of no rain in the Forest City and days of hazy skies caused by wildfires, it appears as though rain is finally in the forecast for later this the weekend.
Two years after two statues were knocked down and damaged at the Manitoba Legislature, one is now back up and Indigenous leaders are upset by the decision.
Anthaea-Grace Patricia Dennis is not your typical 12-year-old. She is a child prodigy who's about to become the youngest Canadian to ever graduate from university.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
A man who killed his ex-wife’s cousin will spend life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years, a judge decided on Thursday at Saskatoon’s Court of King’s Bench.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
Tumbler Ridge, a community with a population of 2,400 in northeastern B.C., has been ordered to evacuate Thursday due to the danger posed by an encroaching wildfire.
A day after the NDP government presented its 30-point plan to address the crisis at Surrey Memorial Hospital, the official Opposition is pledging to build a tower, while acknowledging their role in the situation.
Canada's jobless rate ticked higher to 5.2 per cent in May, marking the first increase since August 2022 as economists have been watching for any sign of a softening labour market.
The mayor of Port Alberni says she does not expect the highway to reopen for several days at least, and she is asking the province to open more forestry roads to truck in much-needed supplies to communities west of the wildfire.
The rock wall built at Little Crescent Beach is pictured. (Heidi Petracek/CTV Atlantic)But now, its landscape has changed – a large rock wall has been erected at Little Crescent, and some residents aren’t happy.
A portion of the rock wall built at Little Crescent Beach is pictured. (Heidi Petracek/CTV Atlantic)
