Quote:
Originally Posted by halifaxboyns
I found the comment about the province not willing to amend the HRM charter to allow density bonusing for the Regional Centre troubling. If the Regional Centre plan is going to work (and if we want to build complete communities) - we need to make sure everyone can be included. The fact is, rents are going up and if we don't offer market adjusted rents or low income housing, the only a few people will get to enjoy up and coming areas while many will be left out.
That annoys me to no end.
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It's a bit odd too since the city can set the across-the-board limits to whatever they want, e.g. zone all of Gottingen to 12 floors and be done with it (with HbD-style setbacks this would be totally fine), or they could just (currently, pre-Centre Plan) create DAs or include exceptions in the plan as they did with some of the grandfathered developments downtown. My understanding is that it's only the preferential "bonus" mechanism that requires the charter amendment. In other words, refusing to amend the charter for bonusing doesn't necessarily reduce heights, but it definitely hurts the ability of the city to reward more desirable development.
It is really terrible that heritage groups are apparently trying to derail other programs they have no clue about because they think it will further their goals. In practice I think the adversarial approach of people like Phil Pacey is counter-productive and creates a lot of unintended consequences. It also bothers me that the HT members or STV comment on economic issues or make pronouncements about what would work best for developers, and the media often lazily take them at face value rather than questioning their agenda.