Sandy Lake

The Sandy Lake-Sackville River Regional Park is currently one thousand acres. It has been recognized for nearly five decades, provincially and municipally and in multiple reports and studies, to be a unique landscape worth protecting, but the final 1800 acres have never been saved. In 1971, P.B. Dean was hired to identify areas “Unique in the Halifax Dartmouth area or important on a regional or provincial scale.” The Sandy Lake to Sackville River area was one of seven unique “jewels” – priority areas to be protected for their ecological richness and for community education and recreation. Time is running out for Sandy Lake. Twists of fate have caused housing development to be on a parallel path.

The area remains unique and ecologically intact. The lakes are bordered by rich drumlins that support magnificent mixed, multi-aged Acadian forest with significant old-growth stands and striking “pit and mound” topography. A wide variety of natural elements exist all in one place, and they are species-rich, including rare species and important turtle and moose habitat, for example. One is a big marsh lake, one a deep “blue lake” (Most in this part of NS are “brown lakes”) and the third a boreal forest lake.

On March 26, 2023 John Lohr, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in the Progressive Conservative government of Tim Houston, announced the creation of the HRM Housing Task Force and 9 “Special Planning Areas” that would excellerate housing development in response to the housing crisis in Nova Scotia. The Housing Task Force was given the authority to by-pass regional planning and public consultation processes. The 1800 acres that had come so close to becoming parkland at Sandy Lake, was now slated for development. Shovels in the ground by 2024.