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Yarmouth mink farm decision appealed

A smaller building could mean proposal would be OK’d

28-10-2009 By BRIAN MEDEL Yarmouth Bureau, The Chronicle Herald, Canada


YARMOUTH — An application to open a mink farm in the Carleton area of Yarmouth County has been rejected by the local municipality.

But the mink farm proponents have appealed that refusal and a public appeal hearing has been set for Jan. 21 in Yarmouth.

A location for the hearing is still being sought, Elaine Wagner, chief clerk of the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, said recently.

A mink farm is being sought by Richard LeBlanc of R & N Farms Ltd. on an 11.7 hectare parcel of land near Sloans Lake.

The Municipality of the District of Yarmouth rejected his application this month, on the basis that a farm building exceeding 450 square metres would be built too close to a home on a nearby property.

The mink farm may go ahead if the building was reduced in size, a letter to Mr. LeBlanc from municipal development officer John Sullivan suggested.

Reducing the size of the building would mean the minimum distance from an existing dwelling would be reduced, the development officer said.

"Depending on the size of the development, the setback from a residence can change," Mr. Sullivan said Tuesday.

An appeal of the decision was filed with the review board about one week after Mr. LeBlanc’s application to council was rejected.

Residents have been very vocal in their opposition to the proposed fur farm.
"We are not radical environmentalists. We do not advocate or condone civil disobedience," said Rick Murphy, last summer on behalf of the newly formed Yarmouth County Environmental Justice Committee.

The group does not oppose mink farms but does oppose their construction in certain locations, he said.

The citizens group wants to prevent a farm endangering lakes and rivers and interfering with the rights of neighbours to enjoy their lives with the smell of a fur operation.

"We are concerned that a mink ranch may not live up to the standards established by our local food farms and we are not convinced that the economic benefits of a mink farm justify the potential trampling of the rights of the people," Mr. Murphy said in a presentation prepared for Yarmouth municipal councillors earlier this year.

A blue-green algae coating some local lakes for several years now is likely a result of chemical or manure pollution from other fur farms, residents have said.
The algae affected a YMCA summer camp’s programming, an official with the organization said earlier.

The algae’s clinical name is cyanobacteria but it is commonly known as pond scum, said an Environment Department news release in 2007.
Several lakes had been affected said the release.

(bmedel@herald.ca)

(Bron: http://thechronicleherald.ca/)