General Updates and News - Page 133

Keith P. · #**2641** Posted **Aug 12, 2011, 11:50 AM**

IMO HbD has been a huge failure and it would be a major mistake to repeat that process for other parts of the city. All it would do would be to give the bloated city planning bureaucracy something to do for a few years with no actual benefit resulting.

halifaxboyns · #**2642** Posted **Aug 12, 2011, 5:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith P.

IMO HbD has been a huge failure and it would be a major mistake to repeat that process for other parts of the city. All it would do would be to give the bloated city planning bureaucracy something to do for a few years with no actual benefit resulting.

HbD is form based code - so it gets into a lot of detail about the building that you can have; whereas a zoning system typically describes the box in which you can build (height, distance from the street, other buildings, etc.).

I think there are a lot of good pieces to HbD - the pre and post bonus map concept is good. It allows the city to leverage from developers improvements to the public realm that normally wouldn't occur; in order for the developer to get more height. Where I think HbD fails is that the post bonus heights are not high enough. HbD also has the design manual which gives people a general design expectation for development - which is a serious attempt to get better designs. That is good, but should be looked at regularly.

If you combined the leveraging system for height (pre/post bonus heights) with a zoning that required mixed use along major roads (like say quinpool) and included in the leveraging system the requirement for subsidized housing (throwing out a bone to those who harp on that) - with the design elements such as street wall heights and the design requirements, you might get something that works okay. But the other thing to consider is that no one is really doing much development outside the core except in the new greenfield subdivisions. So I don't know if this would do anything to really encourage more development in those areas.

Dmajackson · #**2643** Posted **Aug 13, 2011, 3:55 AM**

South Street Townhouse demolition;

Jonovision · #**2644** Posted **Aug 16, 2011, 12:35 PM**

Geotechnical work was being done yesterday in the parking lot of the Citadel Hotel.

Empire · #**2645** Posted **Aug 16, 2011, 3:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonovision

Geotechnical work was being done yesterday in the parking lot of the Citadel Hotel.

There was a proposal a number of years ago for a 14 storey building in the parking lot with connection to a revamped Citadel Inn. I assume this is a newer version of that.

hoser111 · #**2646** Posted **Aug 16, 2011, 4:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Empire

There was a proposal a number of years ago for a 14 storey building in the parking lot with connection to a revamped Citadel Inn. I assume this is a newer version of that.

There was an article in Metro News a couple of days ago stating that the developer was in town sharing their plans with city planners and that they would have more on it in roughly the September time frame.....

Dmajackson · #**2647** Posted **Aug 16, 2011, 8:25 PM**

NEW PROPOSAL TIME!

WM Fares Group has submitted plans for a 43-unit residential building on the north side of Windsor Street at the Connolly Street intersection. The lot is currently vacant (surface parking) and is in a row of duplexes and small apartment buildings. This is a stone's throw away from the Connaught Avenue intersection on Strawberry Hill.

Case 17108 Details

Northend Guy · #**2648** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 1:21 PM**

Is it just me, or has Fares been using a bit of the shotgun approach lately? - Propose a whole bunch of stuff, and see what sticks.

planarchy · #**2649** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 3:00 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

NEW PROPOSAL TIME!

WM Fares Group has submitted plans for a 43-unit residential building on the north side of Windsor Street at the Connolly Street intersection. The lot is currently vacant (surface parking) and is in a row of duplexes and small apartment buildings. This is a stone's throw away from the Connaught Avenue intersection on Strawberry Hill.

Case 17108 Details

Wowo...someone needs to tell WMFares to try out some new glass textures for SketchUp. That thing looks ridiculous.

Dmajackson · #**2650** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 6:08 PM**

Ok, I need some help figuring this out. I am trying to add the new WM Fares proposal to my developments map and the lot is is a spot that is within 100m of FOUR DIFFERENT districts. For now I am going to list it under its current district (Fairview Cove). However I would like to have some feedback as to what you think. The three adjacent districts are Fairview Cove, West-End, Mumford, and Kempt Corridor.

Halifax Developments Map

Waye Mason · #**2651** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 6:47 PM**

I like it, I guess. Hard to tell, as said the renderings mean it could be okay, good, or crappy, depending on the material used. I think it is appropriate for the site.

I'd like to see the parking pulled back into the lot a bit and Windsor widened a bit at that point, I think Windsor should be 4 lanes from the overpass to Cunard, the only choke point is from Willow Park to Connaught.

Waye Mason · #**2652** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 6:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith P.

IMO HbD has been a huge failure and it would be a major mistake to repeat that process for other parts of the city. All it would do would be to give the bloated city planning bureaucracy something to do for a few years with no actual benefit resulting.

So far everyone who has applied under HRMbD has been approved inside of 60 days, so I don't really understand what your logic is. The approval process is way faster now, if you follow the guidelines. The guidelines will be reviewed soon, so I expect that it will run even more smoothly.

The main reason development is slow in Halifax downtown would seem to me to be commercial taxes are far too high, and the economy has been in the crapper since 2008, not the HRMbD process or the MPS.

someone123 · #**2653** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 7:56 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Waye Mason

So far everyone who has applied under HRMbD has been approved inside of 60 days, so I don't really understand what your logic is.

How much of this is due to the fact that the sort of projects that used to be appealed are simply not permitted under HbD?

I think HbD's strength is that it's good for what should be about 80% of new developments -- background type developments of moderate scale and fairly standard design. There's nothing wrong with building an apartment development that doesn't stand out in any particular way. If there were 50 average red brick apartment developments downtown the area would be dramatically more vibrant. The plain designs wouldn't matter much because they'd blend into the background. People would still pay attention to interesting landmark buildings like the old post office or Province House.

There's a tendency to think of big, successful cities as collections of exceptional buildings but in reality Manhattan consists mostly of 4-5 very standard building types with minor variations. A city like Paris is even more consistent, with occasional points of architectural interest.

I do agree that HbD is too conservative with exception buildings and building locations, however. It's like the planners didn't even understand what Halifax already is and produced a plan for Boulder, CO or some other supposed planning utopia.

haligonia · #**2654** Posted **Aug 17, 2011, 10:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dmajackson

Ok, I need some help figuring this out. I am trying to add the new WM Fares proposal to my developments map and the lot is is a spot that is within 100m of FOUR DIFFERENT districts. For now I am going to list it under its current district (Fairview Cove). However I would like to have some feedback as to what you think. The three adjacent districts are Fairview Cove, West-End, Mumford, and Kempt Corridor.

Halifax Developments Map

I'd go with West End. It's the neighbourhood I first thought of when I heard the location of the proposal.

Dmajackson · #**2655** Posted **Aug 18, 2011, 5:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haligonia

I'd go with West End. It's the neighbourhood I first thought of when I heard the location of the proposal.

Thanks. I have edited the map to have Strawberry Hill in the West-End.

When I first saw the address I thought how do two parellel street intersect?

Northend Guy · #**2656** Posted **Aug 18, 2011, 3:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by haligonia

I'd go with West End. It's the neighbourhood I first thought of when I heard the location of the proposal.

I thought exactly the same thing. Mind you...the area immediately surrounding this site is not the most attractive - sort of the armpit of the West end.

Kevin_foster · #**2657** Posted **Aug 18, 2011, 5:44 PM**

Just spent a week in your lovely city, and just had to say how impressed I was with how your city takes care of and embraces historic buildings... loved the street action along Barrington Street and the patios along Argyl too

Some of the development along the Wharf (halifax side) is top notch. I was loving up the apartments going up near the sea port (Hollis and Morris). The sea port farmers market was excellent, and we especially loved the amount of restaurants and well planned condos down there too (the bicycle theif, a mano, etc.). Spent a fortune on food and wine.

Anyways, we escaped being haunted by apparent ghosts at the Waverly Inn and came back with an appreciation for Halifax! Such a cool city!! Will definitely be back!!

Jstaleness · #**2658** Posted **Aug 18, 2011, 6:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin_foster

Just spent a week in your lovely city, and just had to say how impressed I was with how your city takes care of and embraces historic buildings... loved the street action along Barrington Street and the patios along Argyl too

Some of the development along the Wharf (halifax side) is top notch. I was loving up the apartments going up near the sea port (Hollis and Morris). The sea port farmers market was excellent, and we especially loved the amount of restaurants and well planned condos down there too (the bicycle theif, a mano, etc.). Spent a fortune on food and wine.

Anyways, we escaped being haunted by apparent ghosts at the Waverly Inn and came back with an appreciation for Halifax! Such a cool city!! Will definitely be back!!

Wow! Thank you so much for the kind words regarding our city. It isn't something people always share. Tell your friends. Hope you can come back soon.

halifaxboyns · #**2659** Posted **Aug 18, 2011, 6:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin_foster

Just spent a week in your lovely city, and just had to say how impressed I was with how your city takes care of and embraces historic buildings... loved the street action along Barrington Street and the patios along Argyl too

Some of the development along the Wharf (halifax side) is top notch. I was loving up the apartments going up near the sea port (Hollis and Morris). The sea port farmers market was excellent, and we especially loved the amount of restaurants and well planned condos down there too (the bicycle theif, a mano, etc.). Spent a fortune on food and wine.

Anyways, we escaped being haunted by apparent ghosts at the Waverly Inn and came back with an appreciation for Halifax! Such a cool city!! Will definitely be back!!

Speaking as a former Halifax resident who now lives out east - I fully agree; thanks for the great comments. On behalf of the group, I will be enjoying the hospitality of your fine city (Edmonton) this weekend and next!

Dmajackson · #**2660** Posted **Aug 20, 2011, 12:38 AM**

Credit Union renovations in Downtown Dartmouth;