Homeowners on P.E.I.'s South Shore push back against new subdivision development

Some homeowners in Rice Point along P.E.I.'s southern coast say they've been blindsided by plans for a new waterfront subdivision, which they worry will alter the rural landscape and put a strain on community infrastructure.

They say they only became aware the project was forging ahead last week, when construction started to convert 44 acres of farmland into a new 19-lot subdivision. 

"The diggers showed up one day. That's when I found out this was happening," said Daniel Theriault, who lives across the road from the new subdivision.

"We certainly haven't gotten any notices about development or anything like that... And the talk in the community was that it would never go through."

Initially, the subdivision application didn't go through.

Back in 2021, landowners Lucas and Jennie Arsenault had their application to create a subdivision denied by what was then called the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture and Land. 

In its decision, the department said:

• The Island already had thousands of vacant residential lots,
• The proposed development would remove "prime agricultural farmland from P.E.I.'s land base," and
• Coastal development had "caused serious issues, particularly with regards to coastal erosion and scenic viewscapes."

However, the Arsenaults appealed that decision in front of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC). In May 2023, after a three-day hearing, IRAC overturned the department's decision and approved the subdivision.

The ruling was posted online. In it, the commission said concerns over removing farmland and affecting viewscapes were not sufficient reasons to reject a subdivision under the P.E.I. Planning Act. It also said the department's arguments were "not without significant flaws."

Dan Sud, who lives near the new subdivision, said he and his neighbours weren't aware of IRAC's ruling. 

"It was quietly overturned in May 2023, without us having any kind of information, visibility, consultation, or otherwise into the matter," he said. "We thought [that] the preservation of agricultural land was something the province valued and that this would be upheld, even in an appeal process.

"Had we known one took place, we would've wanted to participate."

Community consultation and/or public input is not part of the appeal process.— Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission

IRAC posted notice of the appeal on its website, and ran ads about plans for the public hearing online and in the newspaper. 

However, as the commission said in an email to CBC News: "Community consultation and/or public input is not part of the appeal process... If a member of the public wishes to be involved in the appeal process, they are required to apply for intervener status and the commission must approve this application."

'It's out of our hands': Rural municipality's mayor 

After site work on the new subdivision started, several people in the area reached out to the Rural Municipality of West River to see whether it has any power to stop the project. Some raised their concerns at a planning meeting Thursday night. 

However, the mayor told them there's little the municipality can do. 

"We are required to follow the ruling that is put out by IRAC. So it's out of our hands, really. It's out of our jurisdiction as a municipality," said Mayor Helen Smith-MacPhail. 

The rural municipality was formed through amalgamation in 2020. However, it didn't adopt an official plan and land use bylaws until July 2023 — two months after IRAC's ruling on the Rice Point subdivision. 

According to the mayor, had a bylaw been in place earlier, the landowners would have been required to apply to the rural municipality to rezone the land from "rural area" to "rural residential." That would have prompted a public meeting. 

"Because the IRAC decision was made in May, this land really changed use then," Smith-MacPhail said. "Those lots will be treated as rural residential lots.

"I do wish our land use bylaw had been in place at the time, because then we'd be having a different discussion."

Development permit likely to be approved

Before any actual buildings can go up on the lots, the mayor said the landowners will need to apply to the municipality for a development permit. However, she said that is likely to be approved given how the land is now zoned. 

This is going to significantly alter the landscape and the amount of transportation on this road.— Neighbour Dan Sud

A handful of homeowners in the area have written to the Arsenaults urging them to reconsider their plans, Sud said.  

"This is going to significantly alter the landscape and the amount of transportation on this road," he said. 

"How can the project evolve to take into account the concerns of citizens? I hear there's 19 lots planned. If it's a low-density neighborhood, could there be fewer lots?"

CBC News reached out to Lucas and Jennie Arsenault and to the P.E.I. government for comment, but didn't hear back.