By Glen Hancock

The current squabble over land use in Greenwich and other parts of Kings County, like Weston and Port Williams, brings up some interesting comparisons pertaining to land grants in the history of Nova Scotia and Canada generally.

The basic use of land remains the same – to provide space for building a home and to provide a living for those who live on it.

The Greenwich issue has been rumbling for years. Some of the large landowners there operate farm-related commercial businesses and would like permission to extend these businesses and also to be free to use their holdings for non-agricultural use. A group of residents in the area zealously appose the idea of opening up farmland to commercial and residential development, in essence that the community of Greenwich retain its rural character in perpetuity.

The practice of zoning was instituted for the purpose of controlling abuse in growth areas, to protect home-owners from being invaded by smoke stacks and unattractive activities, and to ensure that agricultural lands be used only for agricultural and related enterprises. There are various combinations of zoning regulations as well, and jurisdictions have discovered that it is difficult to maintain the status quo in growth areas.

Greenwich is a delightful community and its concern over its idyllic appearance is understandable, located as it is on the outskirts of super-developed New Minas and the town of Wolfville, where few open spaces remain.

There are all kinds of things you can’t do with the land you own, and it is reasonable that some kind of control is imposed. You can’t build bonfires without a license. You can’t divert a stream with runs through your property without permission. You cannot build a house in a heritage-conscious community that destroys the symmetry of the landscape.

In Surrey, England, a farmer named Robert Fidler built a mock Tudor castle and hit it behind a high haystack because he knew it was illegal. No one objected, actually, except the council and they did so only because the hay intruded on the view.

I remember marching down Jasper Avenue in Edmonton in an early morning of 1940. No one was about. The highest building was a four-storey. Edmonton was indeed a one-horse town. Look at it now. Toronto at the time was only second in size to Montreal, but in time it grew up from the lake into miles and miles of rich agricultural land, as there was nowhere else to go. You can imagine the wailing of farmers who watched the bricks and mortar creep over their pastures.

Change is inevitable, and somehow we have to learn to live with it.

When settlers first started to come to this country there were no reservations on what they could do with their land grants, although there were obligations they had to meet in order to keep it. Prominent among the early land agents sanctioned by the British parliament was an Irish-born Virginian who schemed his way into the good graces of a prominent people in government and set himself up as a land agent in Canada. Alexander McNutt was at the capture of Louisbourg in 1758. He arrived in Halifax in 1769 with a plan to introduce 1,000 American colonists into Nova Scotia. For every 500 acres granted he would receive 100 acres for himself. This grand scam would eventually accrue eight million acres for McNutt, but the venture failed.

Nova Scotia attracted settlers, nonetheless – the Planters in 1761 and the Loyalists in 1783. One of the inducements was to occupy land already cleared and cultivated by the Acadians. Loyalists in Shelburne were given grants of 100 acres of wild land, plus 100 acres extra for a wife and each child or servant. This was conditional to the swearing of loyalty to the king and to the clearing of three acres of every 50 acres granted. Special grants were made to disbanded soldiers, according to rank. Negro grants were smaller and their lots were segregated.

In town plots, the settlers were given parcels of land to build houses. They drew straws or cards on which were numbers of lots.

Some of the land granted in Nova Scotia was held by absentees who never met the requirements of their grants, but sold the properties to others who added them to their own grants.

The community of Greenwich, (once known as Noggin Corner), was part of the Horton township grant. Some descendants of the original settlers still live there, among them the Bishops and Forsyth(e)s. Unlike other parts of the province where unused farm land has returned to the wild, Greenwich land remains fertile and productive. It is true that wealthy land owners can afford to enjoy the scenery, but there are others who wish to convert their land into profit. The fact is, much of the land now used for farming would be more valuable for commercial and residential use. When family farms are eventually taken over by young people it is likely that they will want to take advantage of these opportunities.

The large landowners in the Greenwich area have been granted some of their wishes by council, but the main item on the agenda – commercial and residential land use – has still to be resolved. After all, nothing is forever.