Utility and review board to hear mink application appeal in January

By Tina Comeau

THE VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

An appeal has been filed with the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board following the rejection, by the Municipality of Yarmouth, of an application for a development permit to establish a mink farm on Sloans Lake in Carleton.

Elaine Wagner, the appeals officer and clerk with the utility and review board, says the date selected for the planning appeal is Thursday, Jan. 21, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

While the entire hearing is open to the public, the daytime portion of the hearing will be for submissions from the parties directly involved/named in the appeal. Anyone from the public who wants to make a submission during the hearing can do so in the evening. They must register with the review board to do so. The hearing will be held at the Rodd Grand Hotel.

In a letter dated Oct. 2, sent to Rick LeBlanc of R&N Farms Limited, the municipality’s development officer John Sullivan informs LeBlanc that the application was denied. The letter states that the rejection of the application is based on a review of the land use bylaw and interpretation of clauses and definitions pertaining to mink farms.

Sullivan’s letter, which was obtained by the Vanguard, states that of particular concern is the special minimum separation distance from a second structure on the lands of James Hurlburt. The development officer says the structure’s location, rather than serving as a buffer, eliminates over 80 per cent of the size of the proposed farm.

People who have had their development permit applications rejected have the right to appeal that decision, and that is what is being done in this case. An appeal has been filed under Section 250(2) of the Municipal Government Act. That section of the act states an applicant may only appeal a refusal to issue a development permit on the grounds that the decision of the development officer does not comply with the land-use by-law or a development agreement.

The notice of planning appeal sent to the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board dated Oct. 9 by LeBlanc’s lawyer states that the second structure on lands of James Hurlburt, referred to in the decision, was incorrectly used as a mode to establish set-back requirements for the proposed development.

On a separate issue, during a hearing held by the Municipality of Yarmouth in late September to discuss a proposed by-law amendment to increase set-back requirements for fox, mink, fowl and hog operations located near watercourses, LeBlanc told municipal councillors and the audience that he has researched the issue of the mink operations long and hard and said his operation will not harm the area, specifically the lake. Nor, he stressed, did he want to see that happen.

But others fear that mink farms, namely those in the Clare region, are responsible for lake pollution and recurring blue-green algae.