Guysborough expropriating four Goldboro properties
Another 40 properties purchased by municipality
GUYSBOROUGH - Four properties described as being "in the footprint of the Keltic Petrochemical project" are being expropriated by the Municipality of the District of Guysborough.
"Rather than those four properties being able to stop a project like Keltic, council is proceeding with expropriation," planning director Gary Cleary said at a rezoning public hearing in Melford last Thursday.
The establishment of a new M-3 heavy industrial zone in the Goldboro area was made official with the publication of a notice of amendments to the planning strategy and land use bylaw for the district seven planning area in the Jan. 18 Guysborough Journal. The change will allow for LNG, petrochemical, wind farms ad other resource industries in the area.
Two of the properties being expropriated are for title reasons. In one of these cases the owner is unknown and in the other clear title has not been determined. In the other two cases, the municipality hasn't been successful in negotiating a price with the owners. The municipality has the authority to expropriate these lands at fair market value.
The expropriation is a legal process which municipal officials hope to have resolved by the end of March.
The municipality successfully negotiated the purchase of 40 properties in this new M-3 area. With a 95 per cent success rate in negotiating the purchase of properties in this area, warden Lloyd Hines says the municipality is "very pleased at this point in terms of the way the overall process has gone…In terms of the land acquisition, I think it's gone just as well as it could have to this point."
