Tuesday, Halifax council rejected the Skye Halifax development proposal. Skye was put forward by United Gulf Developments, which had previously won approval, but never built, the so-called Twisted Sisters development on the same site, at the corner of Hollis and Sackville Streets.
The Skye proposal contained two 48-storey towers, dwarfing any other building in Halifax, and utterly violated HRM By Design, the recently adopted planning rules for downtown. Skye was 2.6 times the HRM By Design height limits for the site, and also broke the rules for street setbacks and other massing guidelines.
Critics of the proposal included the city planning department,the Design Review Committee established under HRM By Design, former city planner Andy Filmore and the Downtown Halifax Business Commission, among others. Many of the proponents co-authored a letter to council outlining their concerns, which boiled down to fears that Skye would make a mockery of the HRM By Design guidelines, which cost millions of dollars to produce after consulting tens of thousands of citizens. Moreover, the opponents said, the Skye project was so large that, if built, it would kill all future demand for development downtown for decades.
Those supportive of the proposal argued that there should at least be a public hearing on Skye.
Facing the first controversial item of his term, new mayor Mike Savage took the unusual step of relieving himself as chair of the meeting, and addressed council on the issues, delivering a blistering attack on Skye.
Those voting not to allow Skye to move forward were Savage and councillors Lorelei Nicoll, Waye Mason, Jennifer Watts, Linda Mosher, Reg Rankin, Brad Johns and Stephen Craig and Tim Outhit.
Those voting to allow to proceed to a public hearing were councillors Barry Dalrymple, David Hendsbee, Gloria McCluskey, Darren Fisher, Stephen Adams and Matt Whitman.
Councillor Russell Walker was absent.
This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2012.
Hot damn. It gives me faith in the new Council.
I hope a similar scale structure can be developed within the planning guidelines somewhere in the downtown. Attracting large companies to NS requires large concurrent spaces that are available. Height restrictions scare me as we may end up with a flat unappealing skyline much like the structures on Washmill. HRM by Design is a great start, but it can’t be a static be-all, end-all. Structures need to complement each other and the plan needs to keep up with the needs of the city (not just the wants).
Just because the development was rejected doesn’t mean Halifax “hates progress”. It seems to me bad design, or inappropriate developments, shouldn’t be approved. It’s a gray area, but really, an intelligent design that gave reasonable consideration to the HBD guidelines would surely have been considered.
So we booted out the old anti-development council and voted in a new anti-development council. Savage’s opposition to development is disappointing but unsurprising given his pandering to special-interest groups during the campaign. Watts, Mason & the other anti-development types seemingly have control of council now, so we can look forward to 4 more years of empty lots in our bombed-out downtown. Maybe next election the citizenry will finally learn empty lots don’t pay the bills and tourists don’t come here to see them.
@Bo Gus: in tragic haligonian fashion, you’re prepared to lower standards for some quick cash. Seriously. People need to start asking for more professionalism from the development community. The city has potential to be amazing. Skye halifax’s renderings looked like they took 10 minutes to pop out. The design was dated from the beginning, so imagine ten or 50 years from now. With that much money being thrown around, you’d think they could hire decent architects to do a proper job. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Will: It is nothing more than more of the same BS designed to keep tall buildings out of the downtown. “Quick cash”? That lot has been empty forever. If we wanted quick cash we could have approved something else to go there. Trouble is, there is no other proposal. The fact is that there is a group in charge who will not be happy until downtown is full of 4-storey red brick faux-victorians.
On the opposite side of the Skye site and on the corner of Hollis and Sackville Jim Spatz is planning a 24 storey development on the site of the Bank of Canada, and it meets all the requirements of HRM by design.
The detailed drawings of the Spatz tower were well received at the recent Fusion event at the train station and was also on CBC TV news last week.
Bo Gus and the skyscraper crowd should clam up and realise that at least one reliable developer is willing to follow the new rules and has a solid reputation of completing projects.
Correction to my earlier post ; the Spatz project is 21 storeys and construction to start September 2013 after office leases expire.
Read this October 24 article with a drawing : http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1537…
Ya, I’m all for new buildings, but it has to be sustainable. Having one very large office complex would take most of the business in the surrounding area. It’s just not smart to put all your eggs in one basket.
Loving all the building cranes popping up these days! It warms my usually cold heart.
Halifax: still an irrelevant shit hole afraid of growth and change. Good work you stupid fuckers
Too bad IBM wasn’t in the construction business, I’m sure they would’ve gotten instant approval as long as the taxpayers had to loan the money to pay for it.
So proud of our council, taking a stand against public hearings. Lol. Brave indeed.
i just want to say even though i disagree and think this should of been approved I am very happy to see mike savage take a stand on this and back it up. Remember he got big sponsorship from the skye developers and he still stuck to his guns. Anyone who has read my posts can see i am not a mike savage supporter in anyway, but i was thoroughly impressed about how he handled everything to do with this. It gives me a tiny bit of hope
HRM By Design established, with a lot of public input, a development plan for our community. It’s nice to see our elected representatives adhering to the Plan instead of routinely granting yet another exemption to a developer.
This is a good move, save people from buying over priced condos… in addition to not rising over valued properties.
Well theres always the useless condos in bedford…
Its a good move though! Now if only the convention centre gets cancelled