Nova ScotiaHalifax residents brought many concerns to an open house on major development planned for the Sandy Lake area in Bedford, and questioned why no provincial decision-makers were there to hear feedback. No provincial representatives at open house for special planning area controlled by provinceHaley Ryan · CBC News · Posted: Nov 12, 2025 6:05 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.People mill around a table of notes with feedback on the Sandy Lake development area, including Coun. Jean St-Amand, centre. (Haley Ryan/CBC)Halifax residents brought traffic and environmental concerns to an open house on major development planned for the Sandy Lake area in Bedford, and questioned why no provincial decision-makers were there to hear feedback.The public spoke with Halifax municipal planners and representatives for developers in the Sandy Lake special planning area at the open house at a Bedford church Wednesday. Sandy Lake is one of 16 spots around the city where the province has taken over development approval from Halifax council in a bid to fast-track housing construction.“The province just came in and said, ‘no, we’re doing it.’ And they’re not even here for us to talk to,” said resident Heather Crosby. Early modelling shows the 400-hectare area could support about 8,000 housing units, according to the municipality.A concept plan for Clayton Developments’ 6,400-unit housing development within the Sandy Lake special planning area in Bedford. (Clayton Developments)Most of these would be in a new 6,400-unit neighbourhood proposed by Clayton Developments that would include a range of ground-level homes and multi-unit highrise buildings.People brought up traffic concerns for the over-capacity Hammonds Plains Road, and environmental impacts on the site’s wetlands and streams and the nearby lake.David Patriquin, a retired Dalhousie University biology professor, said developing around the northern edge of the lake where watercourses feed into Sandy Lake is dangerous. “If you surveyed the lake and tried to find the worst place to put the development, that’s where they put it,” Patriquin said.Patriquin said it is nearly impossible to control all run-off from such major development, and studies show the oxygen levels in the water are already concerningly low. This has made the lake “hypersensitive,” he said.Karen McKendry, senior wilderness co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, said the group is calling on the province to remove Sandy Lake from the list of special planning areas.The Sandy Lake area was chosen by the province as one of its special planning areas to fast-track housing development. (Sandy Lake-Sackville River Coalition)McKendry said she asked to display some maps and graphics showing watercourses and wetland features of the Sandy Lake site, which were included in municipal staff reports, but she was told she couldn’t.Instead, McKendry and other Ecology Action Centre members rented another room in the church hall to display the maps and present their concerns with the current plans.McKendry said studies estimate Halifax will have to pay about $131 million in various infrastructure costs to support the Sandy Lake development, with another $83 million in shared costs with developers.She said it is not clear why the province is prioritizing expensive suburban “sprawl” development like Sandy Lake, rather than projects like Strawberry Hill or the Young District on the peninsula, where there are already services.“I don’t think it’s gonna be evidence-based decision-making here. I think it’s the agenda of the province,” McKendry said.Kevin Neatt, vice-president of planning and development for Clayton Developments, was one of multiple Clayton employees who were part of the open house. Neatt said Clayton has decades of experience developing around wetlands and lakes, and has always gone “above and beyond to protect those” and understand how they function.“Housing can be compatible with the ecological sensitivities, they can work together, they’re not independent,” Neatt told reporters.The Clayton project features the province’s planned connector linking Hammonds Plains Road to Highway 101 in Lower Sackville.The province also recently issued a tender to explore improvements to a stretch of Highway 102 that includes the connection with Hammonds Plains Road at exit 3, near Sandy Lake.Area councillor Jean St-Amand said he is glad to see the province planning for those highway corridors, but he remains “a little bit worried” about increased traffic from these developments.To handle that, St-Amand said, the province needs to support upgrades to the surrounding municipal roads as well.“Show us the money. Really, ultimately we need their partnership … we can’t take on this kind of capital infrastructure expansion ourselves,” St-Amand told reporters.Coun. Jean St-Amand, who represents Bedford-Wentworth, speaks with reporters at the Sandy Lake open house on Nov. 12, 2025. (Daniel Jardine/CBC)“Given their vested interest in the expansion of the municipality in this special planning area and in others, I would expect that they would have a strong opinion about how to expand the infrastructure that we have.”Halifax staff said it will take about two years to do more detailed studies, which will help them create planning and development rules for Sandy Lake.A public survey on the planning area remains open until Dec. 3. Staff’s report will go to the province’s panel on housing, which will make final recommendations to the minister of growth and development. The minister has the final say on how development will happen.MORE TOP STORIES ABOUT THE AUTHORHaley Ryan is the municipal affairs reporter for CBC covering mainland Nova Scotia. Got a story idea? Send an email to haley.ryan@cbc.ca, or reach out on Twitter @hkryan17.
Halifax residents raise traffic, environmental concerns with Sandy Lake development
