No sign of wrongdoing in approval of Point Deroche development, ombuds office says

An investigator with OmbudsPEIhas found no evidence of wrongdoing with regard to how provincial officials handled the approvals for a large seasonal home development in Point Deroche on the Island's North Shore.

In June 30letters to two provincial departments, the investigator found decisions they had made to be reasonable, given that:

• a controversial seawall is actually one metre further inland than a previous one on the same site; and
• parts of buildings on the site would be located just over six metresfarther away from the shore bankthanpreviousbuildings on the site, "thus creating a larger setback resulting in less non-conformity with legislation."

The investigator told the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action and the Department of Housing, Lands and Communities that she was therefore closing the file on Bryson Guptill's complaints about how provincial officials handled the development.

Most of the public criticism of the project over the past year has been aimed at the new rock seawall on the oceanside property, which jutted out onto the beach in a way that some protesters said interfered with public access.

"It did not appear to us that the Department of Environment followed an unreasonable or unfair process in their evaluation and approval of the development of the seawall," the investigator wrote.

"It appears that the Department of Environment had the legal authority and discretion to allow for the building of a new seawall. The physical features of the new seawall are based upon the recommendation of an engineering report which we are not in a position to challenge.

"Further, the new seawall is no taller than, and extends one metre inward from, its predecessor, resulting in less of a footprint," although the investigator did note that "it is sloped in a step fashion which may explain why it looks taller."

Another complaint from Guptill involved how far proposed buildings on the site would be set back from the high-tide mark. Provincial regulations say nothing can be built within 75 feet of the shore, or about 25 metres.

The OmbudsPEI investigator noted that officials allowed a variance in this case to let buildings extend into the setback zone, on the basis that they would still be farther away from shore than previous buildings on the site.

"It appears that the Department of Land had the legal authority and discretion to allow for a variance to the building setback zone to be granted, and doing so resulted in less non-conformity with legislation than what had previously existed on the site," the investigator wrote.

"Given this, it does not appear that the Department of Land followed an unreasonable or unfair process in their evaluation and approval of the development of the property."

The province's Ombudsperson Act says office personnel can close files if "it appears to the ombudsperson that having regard to all the circumstances of the case, further investigation is unnecessary."

Guptill, an avid hiker who has joined with other Islanders to question government land-use policies in recent months, told CBC News in a March 2023 interview that he would like to see a judicial review into why the Point Deroche project was allowed to proceed in the first place.

"If you allow buildings like this to go up willy-nilly on the beaches, then you'll have a lot more of them happening and we'll lose access to public beaches that we have on P.E.I.That's a major problem," he said in that interview.