Stewiacke slows development pending new water treatment plant

Luke Ettinger · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 27, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 27

A Colchester County, N.S., municipality has created caller rules intended to curb a development boom, citing concerns implicit its aging water attraction plant.

Stewiacke Mayor Doug Glasser said the capableness of the existent strategy is unknown. He said the works is astatine the extremity of its lifespan and the measures are needed to uphold the h2o proviso for customers. 

"We privation our assemblage to proceed to grow, but we person to bash it responsibly," said Glasser, who was acclaimed arsenic politician of the municipality of much than 1,500 radical successful October. 

Previously, the municipal readying strategy said determination was "significant capacity" to enactment aboriginal development.

Water advisory 

However, that has not been the lawsuit successful caller summers, including this week.

On Thursday, the municipality issued a water-use advisory recommending residents instrumentality shorter showers and avoid watering lawns, among different conservation measures.

The St. Andrews River, the town's water source, is presently debased and erstwhile it does rain, silt is stirred up successful the river, according to Glasser.

"The h2o that's coming into the strategy is truthful murky that we can't dainty it accelerated enough. And the machines that are treating that water, we don't cognize if they're going to past for different week, a period oregon a year," the politician said.

Following a nationalist proceeding connected June 9, assembly approved amendments to temporarily dilatory the velocity of residential development. There are besides caller restrictions for commercialized uses that are water-intensive, such arsenic car washes and laundromats.

Under the rules billed arsenic impermanent until a caller installation is built, improvement permits for flat buildings cannot beryllium issued successful the serviced area. There are besides caller limitations successful unserviced areas of the town, with lone 3 tons capable to beryllium created from an country of onshore each calendar year.

Joely Killen, proprietor of Ruby's Way Developments, said she was amazed slowing down improvement was the lone enactment the municipality considered. The developer has astir 10 tons that person been grandfathered successful nether the aged rules, but the changes person curtailed a 2nd signifier of 9 tons and a 3rd of up to 50.

"If the municipality doesn't person growth, past it starts to dice and Stewiacke has conscionable successful the past fewer years started to spot that improvement and is acceptable for more," said Killen, who besides owns Winding River Homes and the local Home Hardware store.

"As a developer, I'm gonna determination extracurricular of Stewiacke into different areas that we ain onshore and possibly I don't put my wealth backmost successful Stewiacke," she added.

Killen said the determination by municipality assembly feels contrary to priorities of the provincial and national governments, which person been fast-tracking operation to woody with the nationalist lodging crisis.

New installation years away 

Scott Armstrong, the PC MLA for Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, said helium supports the interim measures, which volition person to beryllium approved by the curate of municipal affairs.

"One of the issues astir maturation is you person to person the infrastructure successful place, h2o and sewer being portion of that, successful bid to person caller housing, caller developments. And we privation our communities to proceed to grow," helium said.

Armstrong said helium volition dependable enactment for a new water attraction plant once the municipality makes an exertion for funding.

The municipality is applying to the Environment Department for a licence to drill a well, alternatively than proceed to trust connected the river.

Glasser hopes the national and provincial governments volition each lend a 3rd of the task costs. Still, helium said it could beryllium 3 to 5 years earlier a caller h2o attraction works comes online.