Ocean Choice has made what it’s calling “significant adjustments” to its Long Pond Harbour development plan.

The new plan, incorporates input and feedback received from the CBS town council, area residents and local business owners.

The revised plan moves the proposed cold storage development to the southwest corner of Long Pond Harbour toward Terminal Road—the more industrial side of the harbor.

That, says Ocean Choice, opens up the east end of the harbour to recreational boaters and allows for the openness of the harbour to be maintained.

The movement of the development will cost Ocean Choice around $2-million. As the southwest corner of the harbor is shallower, dredging will need to be completed.

The development will see approximately 1.7 hectares of new land developed to accommodate a 90-metre finger pier, a laydown and parking area, and cold storage building where product, frozen at sea, can be stored before being shipped to international markets.

The Government of Newfoundland’s environmental assessment initial determination conducted in 2018 still stands.

The project is waiting on a land-use assessment before development can begin.

The development has been controversial with one of the pressing issues being the transparency of the process.

The Eastern Regional Appeals Board has been critical of the town’s transparency surrounding the development.

However, in a media availability yesterday, Rex Hillier, the chair of the town’s development committee, says while he is not getting into all the details of the appeal, the crux of the issue was the board told them the town of CBS had no jurisdiction on the waters of Long Pond Harbour.

He says they’ve gone to government and asked to readjust the boundary to include Long Pond as they thought it did all along. They’re waiting to hear if they can have that completed.