[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by Hali87

It depends who you mean by "city staff" - they don't think as a bloc. In my experience the younger/newer staff members that I have met are really supportive of initiatives like HRMBD and generally wish there were more things like that and that they'd go farther. Some of the older staff who have been part of the system for decades might fit your description, but even then, certainly not all. HRM's urban design department is quite progressive and generally the staff wish they could do MORE "progressive, different-from-status-quo" stuff, not less. Most of them are happy to be rid of the "hard and soft power in development decisions about height" because having to constantly second-guess and negotiate things was extremely tedious and from what I understand basically everyone hated having to do that all the time.

I'm not sure if you're intentionally framing it this way or if it's just how I'm interpreting it, but the Centre Plan hasn't sat dormant so that staff can try one-off approaches, they are trying one-off approaches because the Centre Plan is not complete. I forget the exact reason why it stalled, but two major factors were that resources were spread thin and that there was some conflict between the direction CP was going and other planning goals (obviously not ALL other planning goals, but enough that it was a problem).

The bid was by Housing Nova Scotia, not the NDP government. Not the same thing. In 2014 Lydon Lynch Architects were brought on board to do preliminary designs for the development (which included extensive public consultation). To my knowledge the designs are not complete. Source

And I'm not really familiar enough with what has/had been proposed for Bloomfield to comment on which bid was better, but can you give any concrete examples of how the other bids were objectively "far superior"? Or do you just mean that you preferred them?

As an aside (and directed at everyone, not just you), I would think twice before you call "city staff" things like "idiotic". Most of the ones I know are very smart and progressive and generally wish that policy was more progressive as well, and generally want most of the same things that we want (although "what we want" as a group here seems to be an increasingly fleeting concept). There's a reasonably good chance that some of them follow this forum regularly, and it's pretty discouraging to have your efforts dismissed as idiocy by people who don't actually know what you've been doing.

A few points.

First, I have no doubts there are *some* members of HRM planning-- likely younger ones-- who want to be more progressive. But I would say that the vast majority of the bureaucrats there-- like most bureaucrats-- are resistant to change. They choose the path of least resistance, and that means big shake-ups in procedure, process, planning, which often mean more uncertainty and work and risk, will be generally advised against by staff and resisted. A good example of this is how despite direction from Council for significant Transit shake ups and changes, in the end, the bureaucracy came back with tweaks. Another example is how staff has constantly and consistently recommended against LTE or light transit, often using questionable reasoning. But of course, they're not going to recommend a risky and costly endeavour. They'll leave that to Council. Also, my understanding is that part of the reason why Filmore jumped ship after getting HRMxD was passed, but before Centre Plan was completed, was because trying to push the bureaucracy to get HRMxD itself done was a nightmare. A lot of resistance because let's be frank-- HRMxD represented significant changes in ways planning was done in that office and in City at large. He did a huge thing in getting the HRMxD passed-- what a godsend it's been!-- but I wish he had stayed to complete CP. Don't blame him for leaving for other projects.


Second, sorry, but the Centre Plan has absolutely sat dormant. HRM Staff were FIRST specifically directed by Council to develop a "Regional Centre Urban Design Study" in 2006! The first component of that study, was HRMxD, passed in 2009. The other key component of that study was a "HRMxD Centre Plan". After HRMxD was passed, the Council specifically directed staff to continue with the next phase of the Centre Plan.

That the plan has sit dormant is self evidence from the City's own document and adopted timeline. This document indicates that Phase 1 would mean that the "Centre Plan Framework" would be completed by September 2012:

https://www.halifax.ca/boardscom/SCcped/documents/Item6.1RegPlanandHRMbyDesignreview.pdf

Guess what? The City only issued a Call for Proposals to hire a consultant to begin the process in developing a Centre Plan Framework in September of last year!

Here it is: http://novascotia.ca/tenders/pt_files/tenders/P15-328.pdf

So, we're actually at least 3 years behind schedule, probably more. By the City's own documents and timelines.


Third, Imagine Bloomfield has turned into an absolute disaster and there are two culprits in this: an NDP Provincial Government playing politics with downtown housing and City Staff for likely being cowtowed or suckered into letting them do so, ruining an excellent community developed project plan.

Let's be clear about one thing -- Housing Nova Scotia was launched by the NDP Government (a new version of the previous arms length development corporation) and the aim was clearly political. Can't remember how many press conferences Dexter held on point, but there were many. Here's one: http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1151047-province-invests-in-new-100m-halifax-housing-project

Bloomfield was part of NDP party platform: http://nsndp.ca/families/bloomfield-centre

So, yes: Housing NS was political from top to bottom, giving the then NDP Government another prong in their urban election strategy. And so was their involvement with Bloomfield.

The NDP politicized Imagine Bloomfield. So they're to blame. But so are City Staff. How? The CFP criteria for selecting the winning bid were skewed towards weighting financial considerations as far more important than other criteria you would think would be the priority: creativity, design, and compliance with Imagine Bloomfield vision.

Here's a great breakdown of the debacle:

http://halifaxbloggers.ca/halifaxlovehat...ent-on-the-back-for-bloomfield-just-yet/

Excerpt:

This was worth 35 points out of a total possible 100, which was the criteria with the second highest weighting. The highest weighting was “financial”, or, the amount the bidder was willing to pay. That was worth 50 points.

The Nova Scotia Housing Development Corporation (NSHDC; renamed as Housing Nova Scotia on Friday) was one of three organizations with a qualified bid for the project, and the only publicly-funded one in the race. The two others, Dexel and Killam Properties, are private developers. NSHDC ended up winning the bid, but not because they showed much understanding of the vision that Imagine Bloomfield worked so hard to get into the proposal.

According to a press release issued by Imagine Bloomfield at the time of the decision (which has now been removed from their website, but luckily, the Halifax Media Co-op carried the release in full), NSHDC actually scored the lowest on this dimension among all of the bidders. NSHDC just outbid the others, apparently by a margin large enough to offset their rather large deficit in the “understanding the vision” criteria.



So when the province says it’s investing $100M into the Bloomfield site, it’s really saying that it paid $100M of public dollars to outbid private developers who were willing to pay for the site; private developers who were better able to show that they understood the community’s vision.*

So far all that’s happened is a shifting of public dollars from one purse to another, and a nine-month-late promise to fulfill the conditions of an RFP that we, the community, originally helped to set.

And here's a damning update on that blogpost:

UPDATE (Nov 18 2015): Here we are over two years later, and we’re scarcely further ahead. As Councillor Waye Mason pointed out on Facebook this morning, if the province can’t make it happen, let HRM sell the property to someone else.

So, to recap:

(1) HRM staff resist change.
(2) Centre Plan has, in fact, lay dormant and is years behind schedule
(3) Imagine Bloomfield is a disaster, and we should blame the NDP for politicizing a development that the community wished to be done privately, and the City Staff for selecting their garbage bid and enabling their politicking.

I'm out.