Rock wall raises questions about rules for shoreline development on P.E.I.

A rock wall under construction on the beach at Point Deroche, P.E.I., is raising discussion about what is acceptable to protect the shoreline from erosion.

Bryson Guptill, an avid hiker of trails and beaches, first noticed the rock wall and beach house development months ago.

"It's a problem because people used to walk down that beach and walk all the way along. Now there's so much armour stone that you can't get around. Even at low tide you can't get around."

A family from Toronto is building a summer home on the 6.8 hectare property.

Drone footage this week shows how well the rock wallstood up to post-tropical storm Fiona, while the beach around it was washed away.

Guptill is concerned that this project, right up to the edge of the water, was allowed to go ahead.

Buffer-zone laws are intended to prevent such development. But in this case, there was an old rock wall, and an old house that were even closer to the water than the new beach house will be.

Under a "grandfathering" provision, the owner was allowed to build on the old footprint, but no further, according to a statement from the province.

Policy 'seems so out of place'

Peter Bevan-Baker, the leader of the opposition Green Party, said it's time to re-think grandfathering.

"In view of climate change and how this is accelerating and how storms like Fiona are going to keep coming back, they're going to become more frequent, they're likely to become more ferocious and we need to look again at the planning restrictions and regulations that we have. They're already there. As I said, we have the laws in place. We just have this policy that seems so out of place."

In an email to CBC, the owner said he wants to protect and improve the site.

Upper portions of the rock wall will eventually be covered in sand and planted with dune vegetation.

Coldwater Consulting, which the owner hired to design the rock wall, has done work at Crowbush, Souris, Panmure Island and West Point.

For a natural shoreline, company president Mike Davies said they usually develop well back from the shoreline. But the site already had an old wall in place.

"We took that footprint of the old protection works, as the outer limit of our work, and we've built inside in accordance with agreements with the province about how to develop the site and get permits for it."