[Halifax] Skye Halifax (1565 Granville) | 66 m | 2 x 21 fl | U/C

[Keith P.]

With all the criticism of this proposal, with people bringing up the MPS, HRMbD, the ramparts law, etc; I think there is one question that needs to be asked.

Since nobody has ever, to my knowledge, proposed any building even close to being this tall for anywhere in Halifax before, much less two of them, and much less in the downtown core, it seems likely that none of the policies and principles and strategies for development even took such an occurrence into account.

Therefore you are dealing with uncharted territory. Since such a prospect was never foreseen the strategies et al were never developed with this in mind. Therefore it is a logical argument to suggest that they do not apply and that the development needs to be considered on its own merits.

Any major new development proposal brings with it things that do not fit into the existing development and planning framework. If you built an airport somewhere, then the planning rules for the surrounding area would need to be changed to accommodate it, for example. I see this as little different. To argue that HRMbD didn't allow for it, therefore it must be dismissed, is absurd. This is a $350 million investment in downtown. You cannot arbitrarily turn it down just because a bunch of planners never saw it coming and instituted a bunch of height limitations to pacify a minority special interest group.