The Coast is rounding up the buildings and projects so you can know about them before they’re towering over your backyard. Ben’s Bakery redevelopment An eight-storey plus a penthouse mixed-use building with apartments and street-front businesses, townhouses and a six-storey Berkeley assisted-living residence are planned for the 10,000-square-metre lot between Quinpool Road, Pepperell, Preston and […]
Centre Plan
Posted inNews + Opinion
How to stay alive and maybe even thrive as a non-car on Halifax’s unruly streets
Following this summer’s atrocious safety record of motor vehicle accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists, surely students could use some advice on how to stay alive while navigating our car-centric city. Some ideas: • Attach a pool noodle to your bicycle, forcing drivers to give you your respectful one metre of space. • Dress in glow […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
6 Halifax developments you should know about
Wellington Street (Case 20774) In July, regional council voted to let a bunch of developments go ahead despite the looming Centre Plan. This is one of the more controversial projects, an application by Lydon Lynch Architects, on behalf of owner BANC Developments, for an eight-storey structure on Wellington Street in Halifax’s south end. The development […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
What is affordable housing, anyway?
From public housing to transitionary housing, shelters and housing supports or just the notion that spending more than 30 percent of your income is considered unaffordable, much of the inaction on affordable housing comes from the lack of a firm definition. At two information sessions at Halifax North Memorial Public library and Halifax Central Library […]
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Halifax and West Community Council moving quickly on new builds
A s the Centre Plan looms in the somewhat near future, the city is moving quickly to get development applications caught in its crossfire settled before the big changes come about. Halifax and West Community Council voted one of those developments, a 19-storey building at 2859 Robie Street, between Bilby and Macara Streets, through to […]
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The not-ready Centre Plan strikes back while moving forward
HRM’s Centre Plan is marginally closer to actually existing. The community design advisory committee reviewed all the land use bylaws included in the Centre Plan on Wednesday, and gets two more meetings to pick it apart, a version of progress that’s coming too late for councillor Sam Austin’s constituents, who blame “broken” bylaws for a […]
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New data suggests Airbnb’s impact on Halifax’s rental climate
Airbnb likes to position its hosts as everyday people offering up their homes for a little cash when they take a vacation or leave on a work trip. But new data assembled for The Coast shows the exact opposite. Over half of the Airbnb listings in the urban core seemingly belong to property owners with […]
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Halifax tackles funding options for $200-million CFL stadium
Maritime Football Limited wants to buy 20 acres of land at Shannon Park for a $200-million football stadium—but first the province and the municipality have to agree to help pay for it. A staff report on the much-anticipated stadium proposal coming to city council on Tuesday recommends that HRM completes a “thorough business case analysis” […]
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Planner’s exit could impact Centre Plan
Mayor Mike Savage isn’t sure what sort of impact Jacob Ritchie’s departure from city hall will have on the long-delayed Centre Plan. The urban planner has been shepherding the new planning bible through a slow, often delayed approval process for the past few years. But this week he’ll be leaving city hall behind to head […]
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Affordable housing musical chairs
Within a two-block radius of my home in the north end of Halifax, there are six condo buildings in various stages of development. This, of course, doesn’t include the four adjacent lots at the end of my street that are being sold as a package for its tear-down value of $2 million. Who gains and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
So does the Centre Plan exist or WTF?
Willow Tree is in limbo. Armco’s proposed tower at the corner of Robie Street and Quinpool Road was approved by Halifax Regional Council this past spring at a staff-recommended, Centre Plan-inspired height of 20 storeys. APL Properties, Armco’s development wing, came back to city hall last week saying 20 wouldn’t work. The company had been […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Bob Bjerke’s dismissal moves Halifax back in time
I’ll preface this article by admitting that I don’t yet know the details of chief planner Bob Bjerke’s quick exit (read: dismissal) from his role at HRM. No one does, not even the rest of HRM’s planning staff or apparently Bjerke himself (according to media interviews). This alone speaks to the culture of elusiveness that […]