Updated
November, 2008
CCNS COASTAL POLICY FACTOR SUMMARY
LAND USE AND RESOURCE PLANNING
Land-use planning is an essential element in the effective management of Nova
Scotia’s coastal zone. Ecologically, the waters in the coastal zone are among the most
productive, and in some cases the most sensitive, and human use of coastal land and
waters invariably results in impacts to these environments. Particularly now that the
province’s shoreline is of growing interest to residential, industrial, commercial and
recreational users, land-use planning and management can provide many of the tools
needed for the stewardship of coastal regions and sites.
Because the coastal zone embraces not only inshore waters and inter-tidal areas, but also
extensive tracts of land, land-use management of the coastal zone thus involves managing
human activities not only immediately influenced by and impacting the ocean, but also in
watersheds that drain into coastal areas. Contemporary coastal land-use planning is,
therefore, made up of elements from urban/town planning and regional
development, protected area (conservation) planning, strategic environmental
planning and resource planning.
In Canada, despite at least 30 years of rhetorical commitments by successive federal and
provincial governments, approaches to planning in coastal areas in Canada remain at a
relatively early stage of development. Coastal planning frameworks and activities are
more advanced in a number of coastal US states, where coastal zone management has
been legislated for as long, and in the EU, which has formalized approaches to
management of coastal areas.
This coastal policy factor summary looks at land use and resource planning from three
perspectives: the legal framework for planning; tools for planning in the coastal zone;
and current coastal plans and planning activities.
THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PLANNING
Constitutionally, regulation of land use in Canada is largely the responsibility of the
provincial governments. As do all provinces, NS has statutes providing for the creation
of plans to guide development, the establishment of policies to address particular
planning concerns and the allotment of powers for land use management. In cases
where land use activities impact on aquatic or marine environments, federally-legislated
requirements for environmental assessments, ecosystem protection and resource
conservation apply.
2
In Nova Scotia, land-use planning is carried out by municipalities (which have no
separate constitutional status), under the Municipal Government Act (MGA). Many NS
municipalities have developed a Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS), or ‘Official
Plan’ covering at least a portion of the lands in their jurisdiction. Policies articulated in
the MPS are implemented through land-use by-laws (LUB). However, much of Nova
Scotia’s coastline remains outside the limits of municipal planning, as illustrated in the
figure below.
..
The Municipal Government Act does not specify measures to protect coastal or aquatic
habitat, but does provide the planning tools through which municipalities can apply
protective measures during the land-use planning process. There are no requirements
under the Act for setbacks from watercourses (which include oceanfront and estuaries),
but municipalities can (and many do) create setbacks within their zoning by-laws.
Setbacks are municipal land use planning provisions that regulate the location of a built
structure or development. Setbacks can be used to minimize the potential impact a
development may have on natural features such as watercourses, protect property from
hazards such as steep slopes or provide separation between land uses, such as residential
and industrial.
3
Provincial Subdivision Regulations set up the process to divide land in NS, addressing
issues such as access, lot shape and parkland dedication.. These regulations serve as a
binding template for all municipal subdivision by-laws. (Municipalities with no ‘Official
Plan’ must still adhere to the Subdivision Regulations). All municipalities must also
conform to provincial building codes, and to the provisions of the Environment Act.
TOOLS FOR PLANNING IN THE COASTAL ZONE
The statutory and policy tools outlined above provide provincial parameters for land-use
planning, but the provincial government has no zoning power, and cannot require
municipalities to adopt an Official Plan. It can, however, require that any new planning
conform to the Statements of Provincial Interest (SPIs) set out pursuant to the MGA,
which currently cover five areas: drinking water; flood risk; agricultural land;
infrastructure; and housing.
An SPI on coastal development and protection is suggested frequently as an element of a
NS coastal policy, as municipalities would be required to take the coastal zone into
account in their MPS/Official Plan and land-use by-laws and the provincial government
could send back for revision any MPS that conflicted with the coastal SPI. That said, as
outlined in the factor summary on policies and programmes, in the absence of statutory or
fiscal leverage, a stand-alone coastal SPI would not advance much, and would be
counter-productive if it were to induce anticipatory development activity in vulnerable
coastal areas and wetlands.
Municipalities influence the use of land most directly, using tools ranging from
municipal planning strategies and zoning by-laws to subdivision control, site plan control
and expropriation powers. Municipal Planning Strategies and Official Plans set out
principles and policies concerning the nature of future growth and change in the
municipality over a period of time. Development proposals, and related
environmental/ecological considerations, are normally assessed against the municipal
strategy or plan at the sub-division and/or site plan stage of the project.
.Zoning is one of the most important planning and management tools for land-use
planning and planners in the coastal zone. Zoning by-laws regulate the use of land and
site building configuration parameters. By-laws are adopted in accordance with the
municipality’s official plan, and must conform to the plan’s stated purpose and intention.
By-laws prescribe the kinds and intensity of development in the municipality, and can
also regulate shoreline protection, landscaping, building materials, flood prevention,
drainage, watercourse alteration and soil removal.
Coastal land-use zoning can also be used to spatially separate uses and control
incompatible uses, and to balance ecological and human use objectives. The zoning
process also allows communities to indicate what areas and land uses are or are not
dependent on proximity to the coast. For example, marine industrial land uses are
dependent on immediate harbour access, while residential uses are not. (Under the MGA,
4
it is easier for municipalities to establish land-use zoning that protects people ‘from’ the
environment (eg. flood control) than zoning to protect the environment from people).
Coastal or shoreline setbacks and buffer zones are another widely-used land-use
planning and management tool, which can be used to separate land-based human
activities from vulnerable coasts, to control damage from coastal hazards and to protect
both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Many coastal provinces and states use a
combination of buffer zones and setbacks in coastal land-use management. Coastal buffer
zones can extend from 30m to as much as 500m from shore in special circumstances, but
no uniform standards exist and criteria for buffers vary considerably. New Brunswick’s
Coastal Area Protection Policy is organized around different requirements for 3
successive coastal areas: a core area (beaches, dunes, marshes, etc); a 30m. buffer zone;
and a landward transition zone, and Maine and New Hampshire use shoreline buffers and
setbacks as principal coastal management tools.
In Nova Scotia, buffer zones are not legislated, but many municipalities have
watercourse setback restrictions, and municipalities have the zoning power to
impose setback requirements and buffer zones for coastal wetlands, and to require
permitted uses near environmentally-sensitive habitat. [As some watersheds can
extend 50k or more from the coast, and as no NS location is more than 50k from the sea,
conceivably much of the province could be in transition zones, but in practical terms
10km landward is considered more reasonable]. One way to incorporate flexibility is to
create different-size buffers for different coastal features. Setbacks can be vertical or
horizontal, or both; from a hazard perspective, vertical setbacks protect against flooding
while horizontal setbacks protect against erosion. Currently, without an explicit
provincial coastal policy, municipalities face the burden of proof if they wish to regulate,
or in cases prohibit, coastal development.
Coastal classification is a related tool, which involves categorizing or grouping coastal
areas into classes or types based on common characteristics. Classification of coastal
areas based on biophysical, resource and use has been carried out for most coastal areas
of NS. In coastal land-use planning, these profiles can be used, for example, to suggest
special status designations, such as parks and protected areas and wildlife management
areas. More detailed shoreline classifications and inventories/mapping can be carried out
in targeted areas to establish boundaries to deal with development pressures or other
circumstances. The classification of the coastline can then be used to develop appropriate
setbacks based on specific coastal features. More generally, a municipality could create
zones in mapped areas, with different standards for the review of proposed development
projects in the various zones.
It is now widely recognized that, along with the kind of technical toolkit outlined above,
community involvement and public education are important tools in coastal
planning -- important well beyond the need to establish public support for coastal
planning measures. Modern planning principles situate coastal land-use planning in a
wider context of integrated approaches to oceans and coastal management which strive to
be collaborative, inclusive and transparent. Active citizen and community engagement is
5
essential to this planning model, which requires the balancing and effective integration of
complex and often conflicting objectives and values. Put another way, planning is as
much a normative as a technical process.
In addition to being affected by land-use planning (or the lack thereof), the public is a
source of relevant knowledge and energy. NGOs and local public authorities (such as
watershed management groups and regional conservation councils) can be key resources,
and nature trusts are assuming an expanding role in coastal land securement and
stewardship.
COASTAL PLANS AND PLANNING ACTIVITIES
In Nova Scotia, the utility of coastal planning and management has been acknowledged
explicitly by the provincial authorities at least since the late-1970s work by the provincial
Committee on Land Use Policy on developing an Integrated Coastal Management (ICM)
plan for the province. [Its work did not go forward due to disputes over coastal
jurisdiction]. In 1989, NS joined with New Brunswick and three US states in forming the
Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment; its Action Plan promotes an
ecosystem approach to resource management, public awareness and marine research in
the Gulf. In 1991, Environment Canada initiated an Atlantic Coastal Action Plan
(ACAP), which has sponsored five community-based ICM projects in Nova Scotia.
The most ambitious coastal planning initiative in Nova Scotia during the 1990s was
Coastal 2000, in which the NS Land Use Planning Committee [composed of
representatives of the provincial departments most involved in coast-related matters],
identified key coastal issues and aligned each issues with coastal management goals,
objectives and measurable actions. The resulting framework for community-based ICM,
presented in 1994 as a consultation paper, failed to garner sufficient political or public
support to proceed. Perhaps the most constraining factor was bureaucratic reluctance, as
the Coastal 2000 approach came to be regarded internally as overly ambitious and costly.
A few years later, it appeared as though Canada’s new Oceans Act (1997) and subsequent
Oceans Strategy might usher in a new era in Canadian coastal planning and
management, centered on DFO-led development and implementation of Integrated
Management (IM) plans. In Nova Scotia, the initial IM initiative was the Eastern
Scotian Shelf Integrated Management (ESSIM) large area planning process, in
anticipation of increasing human use (notably Sable gas and container shipping traffic) in
the waters off the province’s Eastern Shore.
The intent of the Oceans Strategy was to extend IM to coastal and estuarine plans in due
course as resources allowed, but a decade later the ESSIM process has bogged down,
with uncertain departmental leadership and uneven engagement around the Stakeholder
Advisory Council table.(The first ESSIM public forum in 4 years takes place in Halifax
in late November). In Placentia Bay, Nfld, where economic activities are expanding, an
IM planning process appears to be moving forward. Another federal Oceans Program
6
initiative in NS is the development of an environmental management plan for the Bras
d’Or Lakes and watershed, through an environmental planning collaboration between
First Nations, three levels of government, industry, community NGOs and academia.
Within the provincial government, there is now a provincial oceans network (PON),
and small coordinating secretariat within Fisheries and Aquaculture, charged with
coordinating the exchange of information within the government on coastal and ocean
management issues and developing a sustainable coastal development strategy (SCDS)
by 2010. As well, the Province has recently designated a number of new protected
areas, some of which contain coastal areas, and has strategically purchased coastal land
to protect biodiversity. It has occasionally funded reports related to coastal management,
such as the 2003 Kingsburg Beach case study of how to manage development on
protected NS beaches, and is currently sponsoring (with DFO) a State of Nova Scotia’s
Coast report as groundwork towards an SCDS.
A few municipalities have begun to show coastal leadership, notably HRM, whose recent
MPS includes vertical and horizontal setbacks from waterbodies, and a Harbour
designation. [In his MURP thesis cited in the source list following, John Charles frames
the challenges and opportunities facing HRM in moving forward with ICM]. Queen’s
County’s MPS also includes coastal protection provisions. Kings’s County is beginning
to look at coastal land-use issues, and its MPS includes a number of ‘coast-conscious’
policies.
For some time, some mayors and counselors have been pressing the leadership of the
Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (UNSM) to address coastal planning issues.
Despite passing a “sustaining coastal ecosystems” resolution (2A) at the Union’s 2006
AGM , as yet the UNSM executive has not been persuaded to make this a priority. [A
specific proposal from CCNS to examine coastal management issues in partnership was
rejected by the UNSM executive in the spring of 2007]. Instead, the UNSM
unsuccessfully pursued a municipal/provincial study of how municipalities could reduce
climate change impacts in coastal areas.
SOURCES
More than half of this coastal policy factor summary has been excerpted directly from
DFO’s Guide to Land Use Planning in Coastal Areas of the Maritime Provinces (Tech.
Report #2443, DFO Maritimes Region, 2003) . This guide provides overviews and fact
sheets for key land-use and related topics, including coastal environments and
ecosystems, tools for land-use planning in the coastal zone and the framework for LUP in
each Maritime province. This 165 pg. reference includes an extensive land-use planning
bibliography [incl. several US and EU websites].
Information about DFO’s major marine and coastal planning activities [incl. ESSIM and
the Bras d’Or Lakes EMP], are available through the Department’s website.
7
A number of relatively recent studies have applied a coastal land-use planning approach
to a variety of NS coastal locations and circumstances. John Charles’ MURP thesis,
Perspectives on Integrated Coastal Management in HRM (Charles, Dalhousie, 2005)
sets out key ICM developments in the US and Canada [including a chart surveying the
last 30 years of ICM history in NS], and explores the potential and challenges associated
with pursuing ICM in HRM.
Two studies look at municipal awareness and the role of communities in coastal area
management (both are also referenced in the coastal policy factor summary on resources
and capacities). In Researching the Role of Communities in Integrated Coastal
Management in NS (Dal. Thesis, 2004), Joanne Weiss Reid focused on citizen
participation in planning and ICM, and on the institutional challenges in moving forward
with ICM in this province.
In Coastal Area Management in Nova Scotia: Building Awareness at the Municipal
Level (RCIP, 2005), Cory Toews looked at coastal issues (incl. non-resident ownership,
coastal access, coastal erosion and rural sustainability) along the South Shore. His
analysis also addressed responsibilities for coastal management and the role of planning
in coastal management.
Regarding land-use planning applied to protected beaches, in 2003 DNR commissioned
an examination of Managing Development on Protected Beaches in NS, with Kingsburg
Beach as a Case Study (Jacques Whitford et.al. for DNR, 2003). This study
recommended a 3-zone plan to manage development at Kingsburg Beach, within an
analysis of beach regulatory regimes in five jurisdictions: NS; NB; PEI; Maine; and
Mass.
Although now well more than a decade old, the Coastal 2000 Consultation Paper
remains relevant, having provided a set of goals, objectives and actions for coastal zone
management in NS. These proposals included adequate funding for community-based
CZM planning initiatives (dubiously, from existing sources) and a legislated requirement
for CZM within 5 years in to-be-identified sensitive areas.
Planning for Coastal Areas in the Context of Changing Climatic Conditions in
Antigonish County (Amber Nicol, Master’s. Planning Project, 2006) provides useful
information on the role of NS municipalities in coastal planning, best practices from other
jurisdictions, and UNSM resolutions on coastal ecosystems and climate change
adaptation.
Changing Climate, Changing Coasts documents the results of a workshop (organized by
CCNS, EAC and CCN) on coastal planning and climate change adaptation. It includes
relevant cases, a listing of sources and resources, and a synopsis of the discussion, cases
and resources required.
8