[Dmajackson]

Problem with the view
Halifax News Net
By Lindsay Jones – The Weekly News

Council has lost an appeal to the province’s highest court over the Waterton condo development overlooking Northwest Arm Drive.
United Gulf Developments can now go ahead and build a second 12-storey building on Walter Havill Drive near St. Margarets Bay Road following a recent Nova Scotia Court of Appeal decision that upheld a Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board ruling in its favour.
That has some nearby homeowners, who say they were under the impression a smaller scale development was in the works, feeling frustrated.
Purcells Cove-Armdale Coun. Linda Mosher says the former city of Halifax approved the original Waterton development agreement in 1990 for one, 12-storey building and two, four-storey structures. Over the years, the developer applied several times to amend the agreement, most recently to build two, 12-storey buildings, she added.
Ross Miller was the third person to build a home on Ridgepark Lane near the development. He purchased land seven years ago from United Gulf Developments. Miller says his view, the value of his home and neighbourhood noise levels will all be impacted by the decision.
“It’s just maddening to buy something with certain conditions and then somebody changes the rules in the middle of the game,” said Miller, who lead a petition against the second 12-storey building. “It doesn’t seem fair that they’re allowed to do that once a plan is decided upon and somebody has sold the lots and houses to people based on that plan.”
Navid Saberi, president of United Gulf Developments, said he was never applying to change the development agreement, but was seeking clarification on what he’s allowed to do.
“Under the development agreement, we believed that is what we’re allowed to do, and that’s what we wanted to do,” Saberi said.
He said all real estate literature and presentations made it clear that he has been planning to build two, 12-storey towers for the last five or six years. He said he has never contemplated building two four-storey buildings.
“It’s unfortunate that through the process the project got delayed ... The only thing this did was make the construction go for two-and-a-half more years instead of being finished and everybody getting on with their lives.”
Construction on the second tower is scheduled to begin in April.
He said the new tower will have greater benefits for the area, such as increased green space, more underground parking, less massing of buildings and better traffic circulation, as well as geothermal heating systems.
In the 32-page decision, the court said what the developer is proposing didn’t significantly differ and reasonably carries out the intent of the city’s Municipal Planning Strategy.
But Mosher vehemently disagreed, saying she’s dismayed at the decision. She said many homeowners in the area told her they never would have bought their homes had they known a second 12-storey building was in the works. “It’s going to obliterate their view,” Mosher said.
“The court has basically thrown out the intent of a development agreement. Unfortunately, that’s the highest body we can appeal to, so we have to abide by the decision and allow the two towers to go up.”
Mosher said the decision doesn’t just impact Waterton, but any current or future development agreement.
“It almost makes our development agreements look like a piece of Swiss cheese with holes through it.” she said.
From now on, Mosher said any development agreement proposed in her district will be reviewed by legal services before coming to council.
ljones@hfxnews.ca