Residents living near the north end waterfront will have to live with a multiple-storey parking garage diminishing their view of the harbour as part of the $300-million Irving shipyard modernization package. Construction on the 520-car garage will be completed by early 2014, says Deborah Page, spokesperson for Irving Shipbuilding.
“The parking garage will not accommodate the entire Halifax Shipyard workforce, especially once the workforce begins to grow again in 2015 with the beginning of production of the first set of Navy combat vessels, the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships,” she writes in an email. Page says Irving is working with HRM in its “SmartTrip initiative” to establish carpool groups and subsidize bus passes.
Glen Ward owns a north end property dating to 1919 known as the Clearview Cottage. “After 94 years, we no longer have a clear view,” he says of the Irving parking garage that now blocks the waterfront at the bottom of Russell Street.
Councillor Jennifer Watts says Irving Shipyard is zoned as C-5, Harbour Related Industrial, which does not have a “building height, size or sighting restriction.” Though the zoning does not explicitly provide for garages, the city determined it to be “an accessory use” to the kinds of construction permitted.
“It would have been nice if they consulted with the neighbourhood or designed it so as not to completely take over the skyline at the bottom of Russell Street,” Ward says. “I’m raising my family here and I’m disappointed we’re looking at a cement wall instead of sunrise on the harbour.”
Ward and other residents claim workers who visited the neighbourhood last spring to videotape the condition of homes before blasting began said the garage would not be higher than street level.
Page responded that Irving was “not aware of any such erroneous comments made by individual shipyard or contractor employees, nor would they be authorized to make such comments.”
“We are making every effort to provide advance notification of activities that may impact [residents], such as underwater blasting, dynamic compaction and 24-hour work accompanying demolition and construction,” she says.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2013.
Unreal what people moan about…..
Yeah…unreal…except when its your view you lose or it impacts you directly. But the snark is appreciated.
When the shipbuilding ramps up those people will be able to flip their shitshacks for double their worth to unsuspecting rubes from away…
Fuck, if they “consulted” the thing would never get built. Its zoned accordingly.
His view of sunrise is not blocked the vast majority of the year.
He has a much bigger problem with the japanese knotweed growing on his property.
I’m surprised at the lack of empathy for what most people would find disappointing. A water view has been replaced with a parking garage. That being a crappy thing, seems irrefutable, no?
I’m really surprised this guy is surprised, how else can we make all these ships?
So….I can’t wait to hear the comments in about a year when they are almost finished that massive construction shed to build the ice breaker; you know, the shed that is about 7-8 stories tall and spans the length of the yard? Ya, that one.
Oy Vey. I thought my comment was pretty straight forward.
I didn’t say the ships shouldn’t get built. I didn’t say the parking garage shouldn’t have been built or anything along those lines.
It’s like you guys can’t admit the simple fact that its too bad for us (who actually live in this neighborhood) that we now have a large parking garage replacing what was a pleasant view.
Is it that hard to imagine yourself, in our shoes, being disappointed that the parking garage has replaced our view? Particularly when we weren’t given a heads up that it would be the size or place that it is in?
No, I can see your point of view, and I’d be pissed too, no doubt about it. If you were told the true height and not what lunchbox larry told you, you might have had time to sell and stick someone else with the new shitty view.
Wait. I thought parking was a problem in the North End. Riiiight, only in the ‘good area’ up on Hydrostone.
I can certainly understand and sympathize with how crappy it can be to have your view ruined, but the tone of the quotes and the article comes off as, “Evil Irving! How dare they do this!”
The truth is, the main protection you have from negative changes on other properties is the zoning, so be sure to check out what the zoning in your community allows. And even when it comes to zoning, it can most definitely be changed. The only way to truly protect your view is to buy it (or maybe be directly next to a national park or something like that).
Haha. Next it’ll be “they’re making noise in a shipyard. I know I moved in next to it, BUT they shouldn’t make noise there”.
Beats looking at Dartmouth!!! 😉
Oh wow, yet another story about bitching NIMBYs in Halifax. I NEVER would have expected that in such a forward-thinking province 😉
A damn shame the view is gone, but let’s face it, there’s a ship building business across the street! What did they think was going to happen when $30 billion in ships got built there? It’s not like Irving just got there either. That’s life in an industrious city, no?
Wait untill they rip out the Cogswell Interchange, folks will discover two more parking garages smack-damn in the way of harbour views. If it isn’t the overpasses and underpasses that trash-up the views….it’s the parking structures. We surely pay a price for the automobile, eh!
Personally I think it sucks that the Irving shipyard’s main production spot is smack dab in the middle of the city. I’ve been listening to constant industrial clanging and banging for the last 48 hours and I live across the harbour. People think it’s unwarranted to “moan” about a city becoming more and more industrial, but hey, there’s a reason I didn’t move to Hamilton 🙂