The need for land banking isn't going to go away: Brothers

By Brent Fox

The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com

The need for something like agricultural land banking isn’t going to go away, says Kings County deputy Warden Diana Brothers.

Kings County council voted Sept. 4 to request provincial government assistance with funding a study being undertaken by the municipality to further explore agricultural land banking.

The municipality has endeavored to protect agricultural land for more than a decade, but urban and financial pressures to use the properties for non-farm purposes have continued to increase. Land banking had been looked at in the past as a means by which such land could be saved without financially impacting farmers.

During the Sept. 4 debate on the request, Brothers told her colleagues that “Kings County’s challenge is preserving agricultural land.” She said, “I’m not saying I think Kings County should land bank, but we should … fund a study on land banking.”

Brothers said that “more and more we’ve been dealing with this, and it’s not going to go away.”

The deputy warden said that “the province should at least partially fund land banking.” But in the meantime, the municipality should ask the government to fund the study.

Responding to a suggestion by Coun. Wayne Atwater, Brothers said that she wants the county to deal with the issue before the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (UNSM) can. She said that the county already has a statement on land banking. “I think that there are a lot of opportunities for land banking to be explored.”

Awater pointed out that land banking had already been before council in the mid-1990s. “Take it to the UNSM. Agricultural land is not only important in Kings County; it’s important across the province. If we’re serious about protecting agricultural land, it’s a UNSM issue.”

The planning advisory committee (PAC) had recommended council make the request to the province.