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Old Posted Dec 7, 2014, 6:18 PM
Colin May Colin May is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hali87 View Post
I could be wrong, but I thought that in at least parts of Halifax, this is the approach. It's not necessarily required by law, but strongly encouraged, and many new developments (ie. the Mary Ann) do include such provisions. There are also developments such as the Bloomfield redevelopment and the two HTNS projects on Gottingen where affordable housing makes up a large percentage of the total.

Also worth noting that housing is technically a provincial responsibility. The province has recently launched a number of programs to support low-income households and the landlords of buildings requiring extensive repairs so that they do not have to (/cannot) raise rents to pay for the repairs.
The Mary Anne project :

September 2012 : Recommend that the Development Officer accept, as the post-bonus height public benefit for the development, the provision of residential units at a subsidized cost to contribute to housing affordability.

July 2013 : Recommend that the Development Officer accept, as the post-bonus height public benefit for the development, the provision of public parking facilities. :
" The proposal from the developer to provide an additional 71 spaces over the two sites far exceeds the LUB’s minimum public benefit requirement which would account for a total of between 5 and 7 spaces. Based on the foregoing, it is recommended that Regional Council adopt, by resolution, the bonus zoning agreement as provided in “Attachment A” of this report for the mixed-used development bounded by Queen, Clyde and Birmingham Streets in Halifax. "
http://www.halifax.ca/council/agenda...0730ca1016.pdf
Businesses on SGR wanted the parking spaces.

From the July 30 2013 Council minutes :
" Cllr Mason ....He advised that the developer will maintain the commitment under the terms of sale, that there will be a percentage of housing that will be below market cost. He clarified that since there is no provincial program that would provide subsidy support to low income housing on the site, there was a need to find an alternative to allow the bonus zoning.
In response to a question from Councillor McCluskey, Mr. Audas advised that there would be approximately 10 units of affordable housing in the development. "
The documents do not appear to contain a promise to provide such units.
Perhaps Cllr. Mason can provide a more complete answer. The letter from Fares contains no mention of any 'public benefit' other than parking.
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