Municipality Climate Adaptation Case Study Report

1760, settling in Falmouth, Newport Landing, Windsor Forks and Brooklyn. According to Joan
Dawson in Nova Scotia’s Lost Highways, the Planters “quickly developed the area, forming
towns and villages and building churches, roads and schools.” 8 The Planters were followed in
1783 by the United Empire Loyalists.
By the early 1800s, Windsor had become “an important destination for travelers from Halifax.” 9
The most direct route was the original military road. The first stagecoach route in Nova Scotia
was established on this road in 1816, and by then:
…settlers’ homes were scattered all along the road… In some areas along the Windsor
Road, communities were beginning to take shape. Individuals applied for and received
land grants, which they hoped would provide for their needs. They built houses and
cleared their land for what, at first was largely subsistence farming. With subsidies from
the legislature, inns were established at intervals to serve passing travellers. 10
Development Today
The development pattern in West Hants today reflects to a large degree the early settlement of
the area, with much of the development occurring near the Minas Basin and Avon River,
especially in communities close to Windsor such as Falmouth and Three Mile Plains (see Map 3
– Settlement Pattern). The communities that began with the early settlers’ land holdings on the
old military road between Windsor and Halifax have continued to grow and spread out in a linear
fashion following what is now Highway 1.
With the construction of the controlled access Highway 101 in the early 1970s, the region
became even more accessible to Halifax and residential development increased near the
highway interchanges and along the Highway 101 corridor. The community of Falmouth, on the
west side of the Avon River, grew dramatically, and as a result, in 1976, was the first area of
West Hants to have land use planning and zoning. Planning for the Highway 101 corridor area
from the East Hants boundary to Windsor soon followed in 1982. By 1989, planning documents
had been approved for the primarily agricultural area of Upper Falmouth. Planning reached the
more rural remainder of West Hants in 1994 when the first Municipal Planning Strategy and
Land Use By-law were adopted for the area north of the Kennetcook River and the
southwestern part of the municipality.
Ongoing highway upgrades, resulting in a fully twinned Highway 101 between Halifax Region
and Garlands Crossing by 2010, have continued to improve access to West Hants and increase
the attractiveness of the area for residential development. The current planning documents,
8 West Hants Historical Society website www.westhantshistorical society.ca, History of Hants County.
9 Dawson, p. 6.
10 Dawson, p. 6.
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