Quote:
Originally Posted by Hali87
The architecture and built form are worth preserving, and it does have good heritage value as an actual neighbourhood (it would be analogous to Cabbagetown or the Annex in Toronto, though obviously smaller) and much (most?) of the original neighbourhood has already been redeveloped. The Wright Ave (H) block on the opposite side of Morris would also be worth preserving, for similar reasons (it also has a more concrete history attached).
Although some find this tedious, it would probably actually be a good thing to create and name more heritage districts. Along with protecting the supply of older buildings, it gives Halifax a more identifiable character and makes the city/region easier to market and to navigate.
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Cabbagetown is an analogous neighbourhood. Well-maintained Victorian character diredctly adjacent to the parts of town with the greatest redevelopment pressure. It's also home to some people are are a bit TOO intense about heritage (last year, there was some controversy in Cabbagetown because someone put a basketball net outside, which was deemed insufficiently Victorian).
No one is ever going to propose tearing down anything in Cabbagetown, partly because Torontonians care that those areas continue to exist. And I wholly agree with that second paragraph quoted above. The fact that a Canadian capital city founded in 1749 has one (toothless, underfunded) heritage district is ridiculous.
As far as the proposal itself, I like it too, and I see it as something that will point the way towards better contemporary residential architecture on this scale. As far these kinds of developments driving up rents going up, that's probably inevitable around here. Building more condo units is probably part of the solution--restricting the housing supply to semi-attached houses is not going to make prices go down in a neighbourhood with this kind of demand.
I'm also okay with seeing some displacement of residents and businesses to places like the North End. Not to stray off topic, but that's actually another reason that preserving the older buildings along streets like Agricola is important (despite suggestions from some posters that the street should be largely redeveloped). Those old buildings are relatively cheap and function as ideal incubators for independent businesses and the kinds of uses being displaced from downtown and the South End. If Agricola is largely torn down and rebuilt, the neighbourhood will quickly cease to be amenable to that kind of organic turnover. I think Agricola's current evolution is turning out just fine.