There was one, brief moment of levity at this morning’s Utility and Review Board hearing about the “twisted towers” development. The lights inexplicably went out for 20 seconds or so, then came back on. Cracking wise about a recent URB case, board chair Peter Gurnham goes, “Nova Scotia Power really doesn’t like us.”
The hearing was about procedure: It lasted less than two hours, and focussed on the date of the more meaty hearings to come. This all concerns opposition, from the Heritage Trust and others, to the United Gulf Developments plan for a two-tower hotel/office/apartment/retail complex on the old Texpark site, between Granville and Hollis Streets downtown.
City council approved the towers in March, and that decision was appealed to the URB. Last spring, the URB said it wants to wait for Nova Scotia’s highest court to rule on the Midtown tower—another controversial highrise which went from council to the URB before going on to the Court of Appeal—and for another Heritage Trust vs. United Gulf legal action to wrap up before deciding on United Gulf’s plan. Does it sound like a convoluted and time-consuming bunch of wrangling to you? United Gulf’s lawyer, Robert Grant, agrees. This morning he told the board TWICE that his client is in a “Kafkaesque procedural limbo.” He’d like the board to set a date and get on with the hearing, other courts and other buildings be damned. The board neither agreed nor disagreed; it is reserving a decision until next week.
UPDATE: In a letter dated October 20, the URB decided to both agree and disagree. It agrees with United Gulf that waiting for the other Heritage legal action (a “judicial review”) will delay things too long. But the board hasn’t changed its mind about wanting the Midtown tower decision from the Court of Appeal. So the URB will go ahead with the United Gulf hearing after the Midtown decision comes out, whether of not the judicial review is over. Mr. Kafka could not be reached for comment.
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2006.