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A bunch of residents in Mahone Bay, N.S., say they have been blindsided by the placement of a brand new photo voltaic backyard, and now they’re taking the city to courtroom for allegedly failing to seek the advice of the general public on the undertaking.
Heidi Walsh-Sampson mentioned she discovered the photo voltaic backyard can be constructed on town-owned land beside the sewage therapy plant and adjoining to her house on Fundamental Road when she heard a heavy machine outdoors her window in January.
“We heard snapping bushes and we raced up there to see the start of the destruction on the land,” Walsh-Sampson instructed CBC Radio’s Info Morning.
She mentioned work on the undertaking is inflicting “critical drainage points on our land, which is instantly beneath it on a hill.”
Take heed to Heidi Walsh-Sampson’s full interview:
Info Morning – NS8:31Mahone Bay Photo voltaic Woes
A bunch of residents in Mahone Bay is taking the city to courtroom over a brand new photo voltaic farm. They are saying the general public was not correctly consulted.
Walsh-Sampson and her neighbours filed a judicial evaluation with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court docket that is anticipated to be heard in October. They argue the city did not observe its personal planning guidelines when it moved ahead with the undertaking.
“Clearly, we would not be taking up the expense of a lawsuit, and neither would our neighbours, if we did not actually really feel this is not only a query of an irritant. That is impacting our land and we really feel that now we have been disadvantaged of rights that we’re assured to be consulted,” she mentioned.
City might expropriate land
Mahone Bay is considered one of three Nova Scotia cities to obtain thousands and thousands of {dollars} from the provincial and federal governments to assemble photo voltaic gardens. Residents in Antigonish have additionally raised considerations in regards to the location of the undertaking of their group. The objective is to change into the primary communities in Canada to realize net-zero emissions through the use of the clear power of the solar to energy the cities.
Mahone Bay is taking a look at expropriating some personal land so it might probably reduce a transmission line to the photo voltaic backyard. The city’s chief administrative officer despatched letters to three landowners to tell them of the intention to make use of their land.
Mark Henneberry, one of many landowners, mentioned the land in query is on the sting of a marsh with older development hemlocks and pines.
He is frightened about erosion and runoff into the marsh if a few of the giant bushes on his property are chopped down.
“I do not need to eliminate my land. It is my peace of thoughts. It is proper on the again of my winery, I do not need folks strolling by means of,” Henneberry mentioned. “I am not in opposition to the photo voltaic farm, however I do know there’s different methods to go about this.”
David Devenne, the mayor of Mahone Bay, mentioned the city hasn’t determined if it can expropriate any land. He mentioned operating the transmission strains elsewhere can be unfeasible or too costly.
Devenne mentioned the city has “full and in depth” environmental safeguards for flooding and stormwater management.
“And will there be a requirement across the specific piece of property that [Mark Henneberry] is referring to, then the suitable stormwater engineering can be completed,” he instructed CBC Radio’s Info Morning on Tuesday.
Operational by 2024
The city initially deliberate to construct the photo voltaic backyard in an industrial space owned by the corporate RPS Composite, and Walsh-Sampson mentioned her neighbours weren’t consulted nor acquired advance discover when a brand new location was chosen.
Devenne mentioned negotiations with the corporate to make use of the positioning have been unsuccessful.
Take heed to Mayor David Devenne’s full interview:
Info Morning – NS9:17Mayor of Mahone Bay responds to considerations over the city’s new photo voltaic improvement
The brand new website proposed for Mahone Bay’s photo voltaic undertaking is beside the wastewater therapy plant on Fundamental Road. As a part of the event, the city plans to expropriate land from three property homeowners – all of whom are opposed, together with Mark Henneberry. We hear from him.
He mentioned choices in regards to the location of the photo voltaic farm have been made at a council assembly and residents “would have been made conscious of it had they been following the developments.”
He’d wish to see the photo voltaic backyard up and operating earlier than the federal authorities’s deadline of 2024.
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