[Cole Harbour] Gem Healthcare Group (1226 CH Road) | Proposed

[Dmajackson]

Major new proposal for Cole Harbour Road at Bissett Road.

Case 2023-00178 Details

"The applicant wishes to develop the property at 1226 Cole Harbour Road and 77 Bissett Road to allow various land uses. The major aspects of the proposal include:

1) A long-term care facility:

144 bedrooms
113 parking spaces
3 storeys in height

2) Four (4) apartment buildings:

A total of 511 units
Building heights at 11 to 12 storeys
Indoor amenity space provided within each building totaling 495m2

A series of walkways and bike trails throughout the site
A “village green” which provides 4,138m2 of outdoor amenity space
Driveway access is shared with the long-term care facility and has entrances from both 77 Bissett Road and 1226 Cole Harbour Road"

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Major new proposal for Cole Harbour Road at Bissett Road.

Case 2023-00178 Details

"The applicant wishes to develop the property at 1226 Cole Harbour Road and 77 Bissett Road to allow various land uses. The major aspects of the proposal include:

1) A long-term care facility:

144 bedrooms
113 parking spaces
3 storeys in height

2) Four (4) apartment buildings:

A total of 511 units
Building heights at 11 to 12 storeys
Indoor amenity space provided within each building totaling 495m2

A series of walkways and bike trails throughout the site
A “village green” which provides 4,138m2 of outdoor amenity space
Driveway access is shared with the long-term care facility and has entrances from both 77 Bissett Road and 1226 Cole Harbour Road"

Interesting choice of Lot. That western edge of the plan is known in Cole Harbour as "the Run". Cause when it rains the creek there runs to Bisset lake.
I hope they have a wild water mitigation plan or lots of Henry waterproofing product around the foundations. The plan will take away the natural view from the back of my Dad's place in Colby Village.

[Jstaleness]

Interesting. This would change the area and views coming into Cole Harbour for sure.

[Musquodoboit County]

Rental vacancy is at an all time low. We need apartments built asap

[gehrhardt]

The opposition groups are already ramping up on Facebook. According to them, these buildings will cause so much traffic chaos, the area will be unbearable!

Yes, Cole Harbour rd has some serious traffic volume at commute times, but I don't think this will make that much of a difference.

Strange how on the same FB group, there are multiple people looking for apartments for rent on a daily basis.

[Musquodoboit County]

Ok so about traffic...
I understand how development works. The developer builds the new community including the roads and than the city takes over the maintenance going forward. But who builds new connection roads between the subdivisions and communities? Is there been any cases where the city actually built roads or is that the province?

[JET]

Originally Posted by gehrhardt

The opposition groups are already ramping up on Facebook. According to them, these buildings will cause so much traffic chaos, the area will be unbearable!

Yes, Cole Harbour rd has some serious traffic volume at commute times, but I don't think this will make that much of a difference.

Strange how on the same FB group, there are multiple people looking for apartments for rent on a daily basis.

Traffic lights, or a roundabout, would be very good at Bassett and Cole Harbour roads

[Saul Goode]

Originally Posted by JET

Traffic lights, or a roundabout, would be very good at Bassett and Cole Harbour roads

I really don't think a roundabout is warranted at Bissett and CHR, but there definitely are times when lights might be helpful.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by JET

Traffic lights, or a roundabout, would be very good at Bassett and Cole Harbour roads

Traffic lights will be installed if anything as there is no room for a round about.

[Jstaleness]

I am with the "I don't think there is room for a roundabout crowd there" folks, but yeah, I think lights will have to be included, as during the summer, and peak traffic times, it is difficult to make a left from Bissitt to CHR.

[Corker]

Originally Posted by Musquodoboit County

Ok so about traffic...
I understand how development works. The developer builds the new community including the roads and than the city takes over the maintenance going forward. But who builds new connection roads between the subdivisions and communities? Is there been any cases where the city actually built roads or is that the province?

As I understand it, the city planning dept tells the developer of a subdivision where they are required to leave space for connections to other future subdivisions or connector roads. They may also be required to make Capital Cost Contributions to the city where future large infrastructure is anticipated, such as water and sewer oversizing, pump stations, reservoirs, overpasses. This framework is generally established years in advance for known development areas like Bedford South, West Bedford, etc, and done in consultation with the landowners. A local playgound, park or trails may have to be installed and paid for by the developer. A location for a future school may be identified but the land sold by the developer to Province because it would serve a larger area than just the subdivision.

Enhancements to long existing roads and intersections would generally be the responsibility of the city, not the developer.

[Musquodoboit County]

This is helpful thanks
Is there examples in Halifax where HRM built connector roads to ease traffic?

[Musquodoboit County]

I wonder if residents didn't oppose big developments but instead asked the municipality to build connection roads to alleviate traffic concerns. ...would the municipality than be the ones opposed to the development because they refuse to build connection roads

[Jstaleness]

CBC did an article on this.

100 or so people came out to the public hearing or whatever. There was some valid concerns about storm water diversion, but the rest was total Nimbyism.

Too tall was one of them. (Why can't people accept that sometimes things are taller than we already have? It's called growth) The other was traffic. I laughed when it was mentioned it can take 30mins to turn left from Cole Harbour road onto Colby or other areas during peak hours.
Then the summer time traffic will grid lock it all with beach goers.

Basically we need housing, but not here.

[Dartguard]

Originally Posted by Jstaleness

CBC did an article on this.

100 or so people came out to the public hearing or whatever. There was some valid concerns about storm water diversion, but the rest was total Nimbyism.

Too tall was one of them. (Why can't people accept that sometimes things are taller than we already have? It's called growth) The other was traffic. I laughed when it was mentioned it can take 30mins to turn left from Cole Harbour road onto Colby or other areas during peak hours.
Then the summer time traffic will grid lock it all with beach goers.

Basically we need housing, but not here.

Let me give a little background about the Issues that the Colby bunch are bringing up. My Parents were the third customers to buy a house in the new subdivision known as Colby Village back in 1970. I grew up on Attwood Crescent and my Dad still lives in the area. Clayton developments thought it would be a good idea back then to hire NSCC students to construct the "A" section of the subdivision. All the streets that start with A, Attwood, Ashgrove, Addison place and so on. Attwood was a learning curve. I was introduced to many Home maintenance issues correcting the original building mistakes of the NSCC bunch.That experience has served me well.

Attwood was the first constructed but almost immediately there were Water issues. Clayton agreed to build a pumping station at the lowest point on Attwood to alleviate water run off from the hill above the street.It was only many years later after discovery processes that we all learned that Attwood houses were built 4 feet LOWER than what they should have been and the Ball field at the top of Ashgrove ( density bonus?") acted as a large capture basin that would deliver runoff in a rush to the streets below. Clayton had to increase the capacity of the Pumping station 4 TIMES over the years.

To top off the issues in that part of Colby there is a natural waterway to the East of Attwood that has caused extreme flooding issues with a Cole Harbour Road apartment building for years when it rains. Folks are a little touchy about water in the Area. I explained what was planned literally in my Dad's backyard and he kinda just shrugged. Being 86 has dulled his Give a Fuck.
If Mom was still with us ...oh my.

[ns_kid]

Municipal Affairs and Housing minister John Lohr announced today that this project has been moved into a provincial special planning area, meaning the development agreement process is defunct. The municipal staff reporting and results of the public consultation last March will go to the minister, who I’m certain will give it all due gravity.

It’s one of four new special planning areas designated today. The largest is the so-called Westphal urban reserve lands, 1000 acres bordered roughly by highway 7, Ross Road, Broom Road and Cole Harbour Road, potentially home to up to 19,000 units. Other areas are in Fall River and Paper Mill Lake, Bedford.

https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2024/0...ment-agreement

[IanWatson]

The Westphal one is exciting because it's mostly held by Akoma and they've been working to advance some pretty cool community-focused housing initiatives in the area. That being said, HRM needs to get transit planning for Main Street sorted out yesterday. We can't wait until there's 10,000 new people out there to start planning for a BRT or LRT line; it needs to be in place the day people start moving in.