New Dawn takes another look at development of former Sydney radar base
Community group can now look beyond oil spill that set back development plans by 12 years.
Now that a lengthy remediation project at the site of a former military base in Sydney, N.S., is ending, plans to develop CFB Sydney are being considered again.
The site, built in 1953, was decommissioned in 1992 and sold to Cape Breton County.
In 2001, the community development group, New Dawn Enterprises, bought it for a dollar and rented out the former private military quarters to families — but a disastrous oil leak in 2004 delayed any future plans.
Forty homes had to be torn down. New Dawn helped those displaced families find a new place to live.
Now, with the cleanup nearly completed, New Dawn is again looking at how the land can best be utilized.
Seniors’ housing considered
“I think, in New Dawn-style, we’ll probably start focus groups of people in the community and figure out what is the best thing to do with that site now that we’re in 2016,” said Norma Boyd, director of operations at New Dawn.
“We’re looking at a new concept called Abbeyfield Homes that has come from Europe to Western Canada for seniors who don’t need a lot of care,” she said.
It wasn’t until 2010 that the Department of National Defence assumed responsibility for the site and started an $8-million cleanup.
A team from the Defence Department toured the site Wednesday for a final inspection.
“We took down 40 houses. We took out 35,000 tons of contaminated soil,” said Lisa Hampson, project manager for the department. “It was a very long project for us and it was painful for New Dawn especially.”
Hampson met with representatives from New Dawn and the provincial environment department Wednesday.
Another shot at development
“We have indications that we can now submit our final four reports. The fence will come down and we will take out the remaining 13 wells and New Dawn will have full access to redevelop this property,” Hampson said.
“We have done everything we can to make it cleaner than clean … our paperwork will be in to them within a week.”
There were great plans for the site before the oil leak occurred, Norma Boyd recalled.
“There were great plans and great excitement about creating a campus of care in that area. We had a welding school, a New Dawn guest facility; we wanted to enhance those facilities and expand them,” Boyd said.
Starting over
There had also been plans to develop nature trails and walking trails, seniors housing, affordable housing, Boyd said.
The oil leakage discovery, she said, was “a very, very sad time and a terrifying moment” because they had to demolish the homes and “we lost our ability to finance our projects because of the contamination.”
With the remediation coming to an end, Boyd said it’s now time to start over. She said she is hopeful construction could start sometime next year.
