Quote:
Originally Posted by halifaxboyns
This argument about Schmidtville is getting old and frankly has been solved by Council. It's called HRM by Design - there is no conflict in planning at all. Council made a clear decision to allow taller buildings through HBD in the block between Spring Garden and Clyde from South Park all the way over to Queen - period. The building heights, rules etc. all reflect a desire to increase density; taller and greater intensity.
The two blocks that are between South Park Street and Dresdon Row are the only ones not impacted by viewplanes (literally a viewplane line goes down the middle of DR). So these two blocks are where taller buildings are emphasised by the planning documents - they tried and failed to have that thinking changed. Move on.
The 'midrise' blocks are the parking lots from DR to Queen - which are impacted by viewplanes and height limited.
Don't get me wrong - I love a lot of the buildings in the Schmidtville low rise area (below Clyde to Morris) - but tall/mid-rise and the smaller buildings can live quite fine together. Just make sure there are good separation distances; stepping the building back as it goes up to break up the massing and shadow studies to make sure that the street gets some light for a certain # of hours. Wow - it's not rocket science.
This also speaks to what is heritage and who determines it - I made a point of that in a post a few weeks ago. We really need a list of buildings that are Council (not the public not even staff; but Council decides on) that are of heritage value. Maybe let the public submit stuff for consideration but legislatively it should be council who decides.
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The thing that makes me nuts is that this is being covered in the press, committees are being formed, politicians are responding, etc, despite the fact that it's basically a non-issue.
Meanwhile real heritage buildings are really being threatened with real demolition, literally just done the street, and no one even seems aware of it.