[Halifax] St. Pat's Crossing | ? m | 4x28 fl | U/C
 

Looks like demolition is set to begin at St. Pat's school on Quinpool:

http://www.halifax.ca/property/6067quinpoolrd.php

http://metronews.ca/news/halifax/142...s-high-school/

http://haligonia.ca/halifax-ns-news/...pool-road.html

There is also a public meeting being held this coming Wednesday where the city will reveal 3 development concept options for the St Pats site.

A full report minus the concepts can be found here: http://shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/quinpool6067

It looks like they want to build another street on the back side of the block to connect Windsor and the back of Quinngate.

I sure hope they do. It's a little tricky to go northbound off of Quinpool, especially now that Cogswell EB is closed for the summer. No left on to Windsor or Robie, and Quingate takes you nowhere, unless this gets built. Between Monastery and North Park, there are no northbound options off of a busy roadway.

While they are at it, tear down that ugly parking garage and build something nice there too.

The new street is a good idea provided they maintain the 'No-Straight-Thru' at Vernon/Quingate.

There is a plan for both that site, the corner, and the funeral home: http://www.halifax.ca/planning/appli...sterboards.pdf

Watts and co are trying to shut it down or lop off enough stories so as to render it low density... which would negate the benefits of having this many more people in that neighbourhood.

I hope they both get built as is!!! It would be fantastic to see the Commons ringed with HighRises! I like the appearance of both these developments!!!

Yes, must be "human scale", made of wood, etc.... plus all the usual suspects who are against anything new above 3 floors.

Yeah... which is ridiculous because this site needs a development exactly like this to have more people living in the area to support Quinpool businesses.

Insane how this group imposes their agenda, despite most being in favour of the development... and where the site is right for height.

Don't forget shadows and the children. Proximity to other tall buildings doesn't matter either. ;)

Watch the St. Pat's site have similar restrictions placed on it... even though there are no houses in direct proximity.

And the sprawl continues.

Watts would be much happier as a councillor of the great city of Lunenburg

Another from the CH:

Options unveiled for former St. Pat’s site

http://thechronicleherald.ca/novasco...E2%80%99s-site

It concerns me that one of the 3 concepts was described as "like Bishop's Landing, without the parking lot". Aside from the fact that the tiny parking lot is the only thing that makes the little bit of retail there viable, why would we want low-rise Highfield Park structures on St. Pat's? It would soon resemble the "luxury townhouses" on Chebucto Rd.

The local NIMBYs will wreck this, I just have a feeling.

Almost a guarantee after reading the quotes.

The three concepts have now been posted on the Shape Your City Halifax page:

http://shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/quinpool6067

Direct link to PDF:
http://shapeyourcityhalifax.ca/syste...pdf?1437673207

I attended the St. Pat's meeting last night. The whole thing was a little fluffy, but that's the challenge... put in too much detail and people feel like the decisions have been made, put in too little and it feels fluffy.

There was definitely a lot of simmering anger in the crowd. I think it was more a spill-over/reaction to the Armco/Westwood proposals on the corner than anything to do with the St. Pat's site. I.e. the neighbourhood saw last night as their outlet for concerns about the corner buildings.

In terms of final proposal, I suspect we'll see the middle one. It's what really makes the most sense and the other two are there to present the extremes and justify the middle. No developer would ever build the "grid" proposal...

I have to be honest and say that at first glance I don't like any of them very much. They all seem to have an overly-dense number of structures that leads to a housing-project type of feel, with lots of potential to become very sketchy very quickly. Frankly, this wasn't at all what I expected.

Is this a novel new way for NIMBYs to block proposals?

We're developing the Centre Plan but then all the development certainty benefits we've seen from HRMxD is lost, because now we're going to let the neighbors decide what to do with a property before developers get a chance to propose anything.

Isn't it possible that developer, using a professional architectural firm, might propose some outside-the-box design that no NIMBY or HRM staffer thought about initially, but then would rally support?

We may never see that design or proposal because the neighbors change the zoning before based on NIMBY principles and limits.

Seems like this process is bad urban planning and NIMBY dominance parading as "public input".

All those concepts look like a mess

I was at the meeting last night and it did turn out about as I expected with some simmering anger and rudeness but thankfully there was no Q&A session so it was calmer then usual.

As for my opinion of the proposals;

- The grid has density going for it but it also feels crowded and is lacking green space.

- The plaza is the most likely scenario to be adopted but I do think they should vary the heights and designs to make it feel more varied.

- The square is hands down the worst scenario. It creates an undesirable central space that will not be used and the lack of variance in styles would create a boring block feeling.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/fe1009f24...dq8o3_1280.jpg
Halifax Developments Blog (Photo by David Jackson)