[someone123]

Are there any differences between these changes for the regional centre and the changes that were brought in under HRM by Design? I am basically thinking of this as "HRM by Design for the rest of the core" -- the height precincts etc. may vary, but the general idea is the same.

It will be really interesting to see how much of an impact this has on proposals in areas like the North End and Dartmouth. I have a feeling the current approval process is (unfortunately) particularly hard on lower budget projects, like midrises in the less expensive neighbourhoods. If you want to build a 20 storey building it might be worth the uncertain approval times (and spending $500k of a $60M budget to deal with the paperwork and appeals), but it may not worth the delay and cost to do a 6 storey apartment instead of 4 floors as-of-right. In some cases if the AOR proposal is not viable (e.g. site needs expensive remediation) and the costs of approval are not worthwhile then a property will simply sit vacant and everybody loses.