'I have a right to build on that property,' P.E.I. developer says of lot near Greenwich dunes

A battle that went on for decades, pitting ecological interests against economic development along the shoreline that now makes up Prince Edward Island National Park's Greenwich site, is heating up again.

Last month, developer Tim Banks received a development permit from the provincial government for a lot he owns roughly 250 metres from the fabled Greenwich sand dunes, 70 kilometres northeast of Charlottetown. The lot is surrounded by land which now belongs to Parks Canada. 

That development permit is being appealed by the Environmental Coalition of P.E.I., which argues conditions to allow the project to proceed have not been met.

Meanwhile, Banks said a building permit he received to construct a rental property on the lot was rescinded hours after it was issued by the province last Monday.

"I have a right to build on that property," Banks told CBC News in an interview Wednesday. "The province approved it… and at the end of the day, that's what's going to happen."

The province's website has a record of Banks' successful development permit application, but no record of a building permit being issued and then rescinded. Banks said a notice about the building permit was on the site but was taken down.

The site also lists two previous development permit applications Banks made for property he owns in the same area, both of which were rejected by the province.

A spokesperson for the Department of Housing, Land and Communities said the province could not comment because of the appeal underway before the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission.

Banks owns four lots in total in a still-vacant subdivision created almost two decades ago on land that at the time was directly adjacent to the national park's Greenwich site.

None of the people who bought any of the 70-plus lots in the first phase of development of the project, known as St. Peters Estates, has ever built a residence there.

Last year, Parks Canada bought a majority of the lots and incorporated them into P.E.I. National Park. Banks said Parks Canada approached him seeking to buy his lots as well, but they couldn't agree on a price.

"They've got an appraiser [who] said it was [worth] $42,000. Our appraiser says they're worth $125,000 a lot. So we differ."

In total, more than a dozen lots in the development remain in private hands. They include four owned by Phyllis Diercks, wife of the New York-based developer George Diercks, who put forward big plans for the area in the 1980s and 1990s.

Among his dreams: a 150-room luxury hotel and casino, an 18-hole golf course, and a time-share condominium development.