Greenwich PEI - Action Alert

Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 01:49:38 -0400
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Sharon Labchuk <slabchuk@isn.net>
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Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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ACTION ALERT

February 27, 2003
 
Greenwich - PEI National Park Threatened by Resort Development and Subdivision

Synopsis

A proposed resort development and subdivision threatens the ecological integrity of Greenwich, the new 900 acre addition to the PEI National Park system. Developers have applied to the Province of PEI for permission to subdivide 163 acres of land adjoining the national park.  One-half of the property would be retained for a resort development while 80 acres would be subdivided into 40 lots and sold. Greenwich, a fragile sand dune and wetland ecosystem on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is PEI's last bit of wilderness and home to the endangered piping plover and rare plant species.


Background

The PEI National Park is the most endangered national park in Canada, with tourist developments surrounding the various small properties that make up the park system.  And now the noose is beginning to tighten around the new 900-acre Greenwich addition.  Already a golf course/resort development has been approved on land adjoining the park.  If this latest resort development and subdivision is approved, it will be one more brick in the wall of development that threatens to enclose Greenwich.  

The Province of PEI granted permission in 1999 to local developers Phil Ferraro and Nancy Willis to purchase this 163 acre property on condition that it could never be subdivided. Since then the land has become part of the new provincially regulated 7,000 acre Special Planning Area surrounding the national park at Greenwich in which this kind of subdivision is prohibited.  Money to purchase this land was provided by a private investor in the form of a one year $380,532 mortgage due in 2000, which remains unpaid. The Province of PEI also loaned the developers money in the form of a collateral mortgage. Now Ferraro and Willis want development use restrictions waived so part of the property can be subdivided and sold. 

Take Action

Subdivision of this property can be vetoed by two parties: 
1. the Premier of PEI and his Executive Council who will consider the application
2. the private investor, Anne B. Lambert/ Thomas G. Welch who holds the mortgage

Phone or send letters to both parties urging them to prohibit the subdivision. Urge Premier Binns to legislate an ecologically significant buffer zone around the national park at Greenwich. 
 
Some other groups opposed to the subdivision are: Canadian Nature Federation, Sierra Club of Canada, Canadian Parks and Wilderness-Nova Scotia Chapter, Council of Canadians-PEI Chapter and Island Nature Trust.

Who to Write

Premier Pat Binns
c/o Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission
Sandy Foy
PO Box 577
Charlottetown  PEI  C1A 7L1
Phone 902-892-3501 
Fax 902-566-4076
sandyf@irac.pe.ca

Anne B. Lambert
Thomas G. Welch
Science Connection
PO Box 599
Chester NS  B0J 1J0
Phone: 902-275-4860
Fax: 902-275-4872
anne@sciconnect.com
www.sciconnect.com

Please send copies of letters to:

Earth Action
slabchuk@isn.net

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