Although it's the St. John's section, this is from a recent article about Halifax:
Quote:
Halifax needs tall buildings to attract more business: development agency exec
Michael Tutton, THE CANADIAN PRESS
ATLANTIC
Last Update: Apr 24, 2008 6:31 PM
HALIFAX - It's economically vital that Halifax city council allow exceptions to proposed rules on downtown building heights, says the chief executive of Nova Scotia's economic development agency.
Council is expected to hear a proposal next month that would set firm height restrictions in the downtown to protect the view of Halifax harbour from the top of Citadel Hill and ensure that streets aren't cast into deep shadows.
The height guidelines are part of a broader proposal to create an urban plan for the city's downtown.
Under current policies, maximum heights must be negotiated through a lengthy process.
Stephen Lund, chief executive of Nova Scotia Business Inc., told an audience of businesspeople Thursday that the city needs more office space if his agency hopes to attract more businesses to the province.
"If we don't do anything, then it's probably going to be game over," he said.
Without "flexibility" in height restrictions, it's possible that businesses the agency is trying to attract to the city will choose another location, he said.
Lund said companies want to be downtown, where the city hasn't had a major new tall building in 18 years.
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Rest of article
HERE
I posted this here because the same issues were discussed in St. John's, even decades ago, and the decisions were made then. To make a further point about this, Halifax's proposed limits of 7 storeys are not as strict as St. Johns's 4 storey limit, and the area there is not as large.
Is this a case of apples and oranges? Do existing tight controls and heritage regulations work to restrict or prevent economic growth, are there other and better balanced ways? I am not anti-heritage conservation, but would downtown be better off today without it's office buildings and larger hotels?
Map of St. John's Heritage Area:
(roughly covers from the Battery to Waterford Bridge Rd, Empire Avenue and Lemarchant Rd. (about 3.5 km x 1.5 km).
(source MUN)
http://www.mun.ca/geog/research/heritage.php
The four storey height limit applies to all areas in red shades (some exceptions have been made). This is essentially all of the commercial downtown core and it's surrounding areas which are primarily heritage residential, small commercial, and institutional areas. The grey areas are excluded, but are all about 90% occupied by high-rise or mid-rise, parking lots, or contain newer or lower grade residential use such as public housing and non heritage type structures. Downtown contains only about two medium size rental buildings I believe; the tallest is 6 floors. If a developer wants to build anything greater than that, they would likely have to go to suburban areas outside of this map, or go through a sometimes lengthy process which would most likely be rejected, which happened recently. Most of what surrounds the heritage area is also residential with restrictive zoning, including some upper class neighborhoods, port industrial land, The Battery Heritage area, and a lot of very steep terrain including Signal Hill National Historic Park.