Just 25 minutes from downtown Halifax lies Sandy Lake, a deep, cool lake framed by forest and wetland. There is a lot of forest to preserve around Halifax, but this landscape is unique to the area. It’s a drumlin landscape where two very different forests meet. In a short hike, you can walk through two types of old growth forest ecosystems, and a wetland, making it an ideal place for educational excursions. The lake is also unusually deep for this region, with cooler depths that make a habitat for migrating salmon. It’s one of the few places near the city where the ecosystem hasn’t been clear-cut, where the forest layers are intact.
Wednesday, the community will meet to discuss a major housing development planned for the lands around Sandy Lake, a development that threatens not just trees, but the very ecological heart of the place.
Why Sandy Lake Is Special
- The area is on drumlin: you can walk from an evergreen-dominated slope to deciduous forest to wetland within minutes. It’s geology meeting biology, and it’s rare near an urban centre.
- Sandy Lake’s watershed is large and largely intact; it hosts migrating fish including wild salmon and American eel, and forms one of the key tributaries of the Sackville River system.
- It has multi-aged Acadian forest, some old-growth stands 200+ years old, and a remarkable diversity of habitats – amphibians, reptiles, rare plants, and birds.
- Because it has never been clear-cut, the soil, canopy, hydrology and understory are still functioning. That means it’s more resilient, more valuable for biodiversity, more important for water quality and carbon storage.
The Threat of Development
Now, the lands around the lake, in particular on the west and south, are designated as a “Special Planning Area (SPA)” to fast-track housing development.
The proposal is for thousands of new housing units in one of the last large green spaces near Halifax.
This is not simply “building more homes.” It is building in the wrong place. Because:
- No matter how many precautions developers claim they will take, construction in such a landscape will bring erosion, runoff, sedimentation, nutrient loading, compaction of soils, disruption of forest and wetland connectivity, increased stormwater flows — all of which threaten the cool lake, the fish habitat, and the wetland systems that depend on forest cover.
- The lake’s health is already showing signs of stress: increased salt loading, declining oxygenation, shoreline disturbance.
- Once development goes in around the lake, public access, quietness, and naturalness diminish. Lights, traffic, noise, paved surfaces and human intrusion replace refuge.
- The land is publicly-valuable as a greenspace, wilderness, and ecological buffer. Degrading the ecosystem with encroaching high-density housing means losing that public value forever.
- The housing likely won’t be affordable. Large-scale developments in scenic natural settings attract premium pricing, which means fewer people will benefit from the land’s public value. Some have pointed out that the homes proposed are more luxury than accessible.
Addressing Common Claims
“We need housing, and this site is available.”
Yes, housing is needed across Halifax. But that doesn’t justify sacrificing one of the region’s ecologically richest and most sensitive areas. We can build more housing in reviewable, less destructive areas — infill, repurpose existing zones, densify where services already exist. And what is needed is affordable housing, and this isn’t it.
“They’ll build responsibly, maintain buffers and wetlands.”
Even the best buffers cannot fully compensate for the loss of forest cover, the increase in runoff that will affect the water quality. Studies indicate that impacts from adjacent development reduce ecosystem integrity even when standards are followed.
What You Can Do
- Attend the community meeting tomorrow, voice your concerns and ask critical questions about ecological impact, long-term water quality, wildlife connectivity, and public access. There are three meeting times on the same day.
- Write to your MLA, your municipal councillor, and the provincial Minister of Housing or Environment. Tell them you support preserving the health of the Sandy Lake ecosystem, and large-scale housing developments should not go adjacent salmon habitat and rare old growth ecosystems.
- Support the Sandy Lake Conservation Association (SLCA) and the broader coalition working to secure the lands.
- Share this issue with friends, social media, local clubs, and community groups. Awareness builds accountability.
- Visit Sandy Lake, explore the trails, learn its value. The more people who know and love the place, the stronger the case for protection.
Sandy Lake is not just “another suburb waiting to happen.” It is one of Halifax’s last large green, wild spaces with a functioning ecosystem that has never been clear-cut, with deep lakes, drumlins, wetlands and old forests. If we allow a sprawling housing development to pollute the ecosystem, we will lose something we cannot rebuild.