Smith, David M. "The Impact of the 1983 Planning Act on Rural Planning in Nova Scotia"

In 1979 the Province of Nova Scotia began a process that would lead to the enactment in 1983 of a new Planning Act for the province. One of the main reasons for the new legislation was to make land use planning easier and more meaningful for municipalities. This thesis will examine the impact of the 1983 Planning Act on the planning process for rural municipalities.

Rural areas have suffered from a distinct urban bias in planning. Much of the traditional planning practice of sorting out land uses and reducing conflicts has been in response to problems associated with high density urban living. Planning issues in rural areas tend to be much broader in scope and not always totally within the municipal sphere of control. The future of the forestry or agricultural resource, for example, is an important rural issue but most of the decisions which affect these resources are made at the provincial level. Meaningful rural planning, then, must be a combination of some form of provincial and municipal planning working together.

This thesis will show that rural planning has not been adequately considered in the 1983 Planning Act. As a result rural areas in Nova Scotia remain largely unplanned and open to inconsistent and potentially conflicting and harmful development decisions. The thesis will review the process that led to the present Planning Act, examine some workable and practical approaches to rural planning and evaluate the rural planning efforts that have been made in the province up to 1987. Finally, the thesis will recommend some changes that could be made to the Act which would result in a more realistic planning process for rural municipalities.

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This document was last modified on January 24, 2001.