[Image-1] Would fewer parking spaces on Gottingen Street help or hinder local businesses? Ross Cantwell feels it’s the latter. An email from the property developer to Halifax Transit and peninsula councillors Jennifer Watts and Waye Mason (CC’d to The Coast) voices concerns about potential plans to remove on-street parking in order to ease transit congestion. […]
City Council
Posted inNews + Opinion
Homes Not Hondas back up for discussion at council
[Image-1] At Tuesday’s meeting of Halifax Regional Council, Jennifer Watts will be putting forward three motions relating to Colonial Honda’s plans to tear down close to two dozen north end houses for an expanded parking lot. Watts is asking council to request the province amend its Charter so that HRM can implement interim development controls […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Reg Rankin won’t re-offer in October’s municipal election
[Image-1] After a quarter of a century as a Halifax councillor, Reg Rankin is calling it quits. The Timberlea-Beechville-Clayton Park-Wedgewood councillor confirms to The Coast that he won’t be running in this fall’s municipal election. “It’s been rewarding,” Rankin says. “I always viewed it as a challenge…but there’s other people in waiting.” “A number of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
City council flips its municipal lid over new Otter Lake legislation
[Image-1] There was “shock and awe” at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon, as an emergency meeting of HRM Regional Council convened to condemn the provincial government’s swiftly-enacted controls over how Halifax runs the Otter Lake landfill. On May 4, Timberlea-Prospect MLA Iain Rankin submitted a private member’s bill to maintain the Otter Lake landfill’s current allowable […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Queen’s Marque earns high praise from Design Review Committee
[Image-1] It’s early in the planning approval process, but Scott McCrea’s ambitious $200-million waterfront development seems to have hit the ‘marque’ with HRM’s Design Review Committee. On Thursday afternoon, Armour CEO Scott McCrea presented his Queen’s Marque project to the city’s panel of engineers, architects and urban planners. It went OK. “I have to resist […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax’s campaign finance regulations are limited in scope
[Image-1] The municipality will soon have the power to set rules on how politicians collect and spend money in municipal elections. We need these rules to restore public confidence and make fairer and more competitive elections. While improved regulatory powers are welcome, Bill 154 has one big flaw: it doesn’t explicitly allow HRM to offer […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax votes to keep honouring Edward Cornwallis
[Image-1] A vigorous debate on whether to examine the naming of public assets after Edward Cornwallis ended Tuesday night with HRM Regional Council boldly deciding to maintain the status quo. At hand was a request from Halifax South Downtown councillor Waye Mason for a staff report on a public engagement process to advise council on […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Halifax Transit drops $17 million on new buses
An influx of new buses will make Halifax Transit more accessible and more environmentally friendly—at a cost of nearly $17 million to the municipality. On Tuesday, HRM Regional Council awarded Nova Bus Ltd a contract to supply up to 100 new Halifax Transit buses to the municipality over the next five years. Halifax will pay […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Seeking shelter from the storm
[Image-1] Affordable housing is one of those terms that seems to mean less every time you use it. At least, that’s how Elaine Williams sees it. “When they say ‘affordable housing,’ that drives me crazy.” Williams has lived in Mulgrave Park, at the northern end of the Halifax peninsula, for decades—45 years, to be […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council may finally kill Texpark development agreement
[Image-1] A decade after it was originally approved and six years after its development agreement expired, the Twisted Sisters project could be shambling back to life—unless council can kill it first. Next week, Halifax South Downtown councillor Waye Mason will be asking for a staff report on discharging the development agreement between HRM and United […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Council approves $85,577 to review firefighter response times
[Image-1] It was a familiar site inside City Hall on Tuesday, as council once again questioned the plans of Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency chief Doug Trussler. At issue was a proposed external service standards review, which will be undertaken by Pomax Consultants (the only company who bid on the tender), at a cost of […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Champs-Élysées of Halifax?
[Image-1] UPDATE: Council unanimously approved the new plans at Tuesday’s meeting. This article has been updated to reflect that vote. Big changes could be are coming to some of the downtown’s busiest streets. A staff report before council on Tuesday recommends HRM move forward with the detailed design work and tendering process for a […]
