Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
Any sense of what he's planning? I pray to god he isn't going to try and build a tower based on some half-assed argument over precedent due to the Roy, since that was clearly approved before the HCD.
I've been worried about this for a while, anyway—owner Jeff Webber's sob stories about his insurance woes have strained credibility for some time. I do wonder, though, if this is an attempt to poke a stick in the city's eye, as it were, and goad them into giving him something he wants. He seemed committed to renovating as of last year, as indicated in the last half of this story in which Webber does a lot of whining about his relationship with the city.
In any case, it's getting ridiculous the number of major heritage battles that have to be constantly fought in this ostensibly historic city, usually premised on the unconvincing arguments about building codes and "not fit for modern use", etc. In six years of living in Toronto, I didn't see a single building of the calibre of the Green Lantern (or the Dennis, or the Roy, or the Spring Garden-Birmingham block) endangered, much less demolished. I would go out on a limb and say Halifax has more significant endangered structures than any other city in the country. I'm not sure what it is about our development community that so many are so eager to rip things down, but it's not typical.
If this happens it'll really pathetic. This stuff shouldn't be happening in 2014, certainly not in the city's showpiece heritage district. It's pathetic. I wish Webber would just sell the building to someone who who wants to do something with it. |
Yeah, it's ridiculous that we are even having this discussion in this day and age.
Ripping down the Roy and now potentially the Keith is starting to make a joke out of the Barrington "heritage district". Meanwhile we seem to be very proficient at preserving vacant lots for some reason or other.
Perhaps our municipal politicians should visit Portland, Maine to see how it's done.
Pathetic - I'm embarrassed to be from here some days.
Threaded Mode