Ecology Action Centre specialist warns of dangerous homes built near coast

Some structures in Nova Scotia are being built dangerously close to the coast, some being less than 2.5 metres from the water

HALIFAXtoday\ Chris Stoodley

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An Ecology Action Centre (EAC) coastal specialist is warning people who are purchasing or building homes along Nova Scotia’s coastline to consider serious climate change dangers.

“As an oversimplified, broad statement, let me just say to anyone right now who is thinking of buying a coastal property or building along our coast, please make sure that the location you’re going to situate a home is safely set back from the ocean,” Nancy Anningson said. “Be at least 100 metres back from the ocean and don’t build on low-lying areas.”

Anningson, who’s the EAC’s coastal adaptation senior coordinator, said it’s a critical situation here in Nova Scotia and the Halifax area.

A recent report from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices indicates that Canadians are unknowingly buying and building homes and other infrastructure in areas that are at high risk of flooding, wildfires and other climate change impacts.

This could lead to billions of dollars in damage each year.

“Yes, we’re not quite there yet where every single day there’s a catastrophe,” Anningson told NEWS 95.7. “But we’re close enough. … Every single time we build a structure too close to the ocean and we damage a coastal ecosystem, which is trying desperately to adapt and be resilient in the face of climate change, we are doing ourselves [a disservice].”

She said when catastrophes do happen, it takes years for the liability cases to go through the court system.

In the Miami surfside condominium collapse in June that saw at least 97 people die, Anningson said it’ll probably be a decade or a decade-and-a-half before the families of the victims are in a courtroom debating the issue.

She said most of the people who own property along the coast in Nova Scotia don’t have insurance for coastal flooding.

“Do they know that? I don’t know,” she said. “The folks who are building now, if you drive along the coastline right now, I spend a lot of my time sifting through horrifying photos people are sending me all along Nova Scotia’s shore of things being built right now.”

For instance, some of those things include structures being built less than 2.5 metres from the water. In Nova Scotia’s Coastal Protection Zone Regulations, it recommends buildings be at least 100 metres from the ocean.

“How is this possible? And yet, it is,” Anningson said. “We’re still not protected.”

In the Halifax area, there are exemptions or special rules that go against the city’s effort to mitigate climate change’s effects.

Anningson said there are some undersized lots in the municipality that don’t have the same setbacks as other larger-sized lots. That also means homes built on undersized lots aren’t protected like other homes built on larger lots; it’s something that Anningson said is worthy of a lawsuit.

“St. Margaret’s Bay is a horrifying example of this, Glen Haven there are examples, Ingramport there are whole developments of undersized lots with beautiful homes being built shockingly close to the ocean,” she said. “Haven’t these people heard? Who’s buying them? It’s just baffling.”

There are other instances, too, where property owners are trying to trick the system. For example, she said some people are quietly infilling coastal wetlands without getting the proper permit.

In that situation, she said the system is not working because there are some permits that property owners must get through either the provincial or municipal government and it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks.

“Be safe, people,” Anningson said. “There’s lots of resources out there. do your homework and ask your realtor. Use common sense.”