[IanWatson]

Specifically, Council approved the encroachment for the pedway. The parking garage itself is fully on Province-owned land, so no approval needed for it. If Council had said "no", the Province could still have built the garage, just not the pedway.

The previous proposal (south of the museum) DID need Council approval, because the Province needed to buy some land from HRM to make it work. Of course, they could have expropriated but that takes time and probably would have been politically-poisonous.

This updated proposal is slightly better, but I don't cherish the thought of looking at an 8-story parking garage when sitting on the Common. Hopefully they invest in some good design for the structure and don't just build MetroPark 2.0