CityHall 19Jun2025

1. Purcell’s Cove Backlands, Purcell’s Cove | Case 22257HRM initiated a request to review all lands in the Urban Reserve Designation in the Purcell’s Cove area, as a result of HRM’s acquisition of Shaw Wilderness Park in 2018.

For many years, the Backlands Coalition, property owners and the broader public have been in discussion with HRM Planners about future zoning changes affecting privately owned lots in the Purcell’s Cove Backlands. Since December of 2023, HRM has been proposing the following Phase 4 amendment, as it would minimize development in the most fire-prone areas of the Backlands, where housing cannot be safely built. The proposed amendment (which was made available for all to see on the HRM website) was the following:

• Acknowledge that an urban form of serviced development is no longer envisioned in this location;

• Re-designate and rezone the Shaw Wilderness Park lands to Open Space and Natural Resources Designation and the Regional Park Zone to reflect its current use;

• Re-designate and rezone other publicly owned lands and private conservation lands to the Open Space and Natural Resource Designation and the Protected Area Zone;

• Re-designate privately owned Urban Reserve lands to Rural Commuter within a specified and limited distance of Purcell’s Cove Road, apply the Open Space and Natural Resource Designation to the remainder of the properties, and apply a new Purcell’s Cove Backlands Designation and Zone within the Halifax Mainland Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy and Land Use By-law to the lands.

Our recommendations for your Submissions to Council

• We recommend that Council pass the above carefully considered amendment in Phase 4 of the Regional Plan Review. (We do not think this decision should be postponed until Phase 5, as an approximately 2,000-page very recently published HRM Planning document has recommended.)

• It is critically important that Council strictly define how far back from Purcell’s Cove Road lot owners will be permitted to develop their lots and build houses. We must be unified in advocating for development of lots no farther back than 100 metres from Purcell’s Cove Road, as we had previously discussed with HRM Planners. (This will greatly minimize the number of houses property owners will be allowed to build in the future and prevent houses from being built in a known Wildfire Zone.)

• We should request that Council establish an incentive program for property owners along the Purcell’s Cove Road who own long, narrow lots fronting on the Purcell’s Cove Road. These lot owners should be allowed to subdivide ONLY for the purpose of donating the back part of their lots to the Nature Conservancy and/or Nova Scotia Nature Trust for conservation. For this they should receive the largest tax deduction possible.

• The fire hazard of developing lots farther back than 100 metres from the Purcell’s Cove Road is REAL and only increasing. The Purcell’s Cove Backlands must be considered a “no-go zone” for building. There is plenty of evidence to justify this stance: there was the massive wildfire of 2009 when many houses (particularly on Aaron’s Way) were burnt to the ground. Thousands of people had to be evacuated from the area. During this same fire, several houses on Fortress Drive were damaged — the wildfire jumped across the Purcell’s Cove road, leaving residents to flee for their lives, with only minutes of notice.

• There was a subsequent wildfire on the Bess/Shaw Land in 2012, which burned very close to Oceanview Drive. Additionally, there was the harrowing fire in Hammonds Plains/Upper Tantallon only 2 years ago that is worth referencing — a truly catastrophic fire and a cautionary tale for us all: 151 homes burned to the ground and 969 hectares of land burned in these HRM subdivisions. It is a miracle that no human lives were lost during this incredibly intense, rapid-moving wildfire.

• If people are permitted to build upon this known Wildfire Zone in the Purcell’s Cove Backlands, one can foresee future lawsuits after lives are lost, people are injured and houses/properties are burnt to the ground. Statistics show that these wildfires are only becoming more and more frequent, ferocious and destructive. In the aftermath of the 2009 Purcell’s Cove Backlands wildfire, 18 separate lawsuits seeking a total of $10 million in damages were filed against HRM and Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Service. HRM had to settle and pay out an undisclosed amount to the insurance companies that filed the lawsuits.  Halifax Fire Facing 18 Suits & $10 Million in Claims for 2009 Wildland Fire – Fire Law Blog; HRM, fire department sued for wildfire | CBC News

• Advancing the wildland-urban-interface in a wildfire prone landscape is definitely a poor strategy for development, especially into a known fire landscape.

• It is critical that Councillors reflect on how climate change is pushing fire-favourable conditions in Nova Scotia. We have hotter, drier summers (lower precipitation and loss of snow cover in winter, as well, also means a lower water table). The new climate is ratcheting up the fire conditions in already fire-prone landscapes. Natural Resources Canada has forecasted a higher than average fire severity risk for June and August for parts of mainland NS: Canadian Wildland Fire Information System | Monthly and Seasonal Forecasts; Seasonal forecasts for Canada

• These private Urban Reserve lands under discussion in the Backlands are no longer being considered for serviced development; they cannot contribute to easing the housing shortage in any real way, and certainly not affordable housing. Therefore, any further development of these lands serves no useful purpose, while preserving the natural attributes of the Backlands does in so many ways.

Please feel free to draw, copy and paste from the points listed above for your submissions and/or presentations to Council at this critical juncture for the fate of the Purcell’s Cove Backlands. (Also see attached map of the Purcell’s Cove Backlands, which we encourage you to add to your submissions.)