General Updates and News

[Keith P.]

Urban council members are spending most of their time trying to give the HCC everything on their wish list, and spending an inordinate amount of taxpayer cash on bike infrastructure that is seldom used instead of on city-building things like this. HRM's priorities are badly messed up.

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

But I agree, some heritage buildings lend themselves well to accommodate further development, such as the Espace as mentioned, and The Dillon. It would be nice if the city could expend some effort to determine which ones should be preserved, which ones will lend themselves to adaptive development, and which ones are OK to demolish, and make strong rules to to enforce each circumstance. But, there is basically nothing.

Essentially, it's up to the developer to decide whether they want to expend the effort and cost to preserve at least part of a heritage property as a benefit to the city, but if they don't have that inclination, it is no problem to demolish pretty much any building they want while following the rules as they currently exist.

Indeed. And in the few circumstances where effort is being expended, like with the Old South Suburb HCD, the implementation process takes so many years that the very streetscapes the HCD is intended to protect are being destroyed while the thing is in-process.

Developers are buying properties, submitting plans, getting demolition approvals and bringing in the excavators in a fraction of the time it takes the city to do what amounts to paperwork. And suggestion that the city's timelines are insufficiently aggressive is met with defensiveness about respecting the process, despite the incredibly flawed nature of said process.

From what I've heard about Dexel on Barrington, they're pretty much going to all-but-completely destroy these buildings, retaining only facades, which given their massing can't possibly work very well. Heritage folks I've talked to about it are basically like, "meh, it's all above board." We can be almost certain the DRC will give a rave review to the thing. And much as I respect Waye, he's not going to raise a fuss about it, which is typical of Halifax council: councillors seem to be very quick to defer to the letter of the law, even when some additional leadership or stand-taking is called for. (Good example: Savage and Watts were both wholly opposed to Colonial Honda's expansion plans, but could barely be heard to whisper as much publicly, though it would have greatly bolstered the neighbourhood's case.)

[Ziobrop]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

Indeed. And in the few circumstances where effort is being expended, like with the Old South Suburb HCD, the implementation process takes so many years that the very streetscapes the HCD is intended to protect are being destroyed while the thing is in-process.

Developers are buying properties, submitting plans, getting demolition approvals and bringing in the excavators in a fraction of the time it takes the city to do what amounts to paperwork. And suggestion that the city's timelines are insufficiently aggressive is met with defensiveness about respecting the process, despite the incredibly flawed nature of said process.

From what I've heard about Dexel on Barrington, they're pretty much going to all-but-completely destroy these buildings, retaining only facades, which given their massing can't possibly work very well. Heritage folks I've talked to about it are basically like, "meh, it's all above board." We can be almost certain the DRC will give a rave review to the thing. And much as I respect Waye, he's not going to raise a fuss about it, which is typical of Halifax council: councillors seem to be very quick to defer to the letter of the law, even when some additional leadership or stand-taking is called for. (Good example: Savage and Watts were both wholly opposed to Colonial Honda's expansion plans, but could barely be heard to whisper as much publicly, though it would have greatly bolstered the neighbourhood's case.)

the city has a aversion to litigation. so they get an opinion, go with it and fold and let stuff happen.
they have a bunch of lawyers on staff - they shouldnt be afraid to fight in court once and a while.

[Jonovision]

The small infill on Dresden.

20161202_141608 by Jonovision23, on Flickr

[Jonovision]

Barrington is starting to look better and better.

20161215_163049_HDR by Jonovision23, on Flickr

20161215_162827_HDR by Jonovision23, on Flickr

[portapetey]

Very interesting study:

http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/201...-halifax-residents-like-development.html

Now, I always question how any study is done and would love to see what the actual questions were.

But if it was a good survey, I hope that Municipal staff and council heed the results and accept that the very loud voices of a very vocal minority may only represent the 2% of the population that object to the changes in our built environment.

[Keith P.]

Originally Posted by portapetey

Very interesting study:

http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/201...-halifax-residents-like-development.html

Now, I always question how any study is done and would love to see what the actual questions were.

But if it was a good survey, I hope that Municipal staff and council heed the results and accept that the very loud voices of a very vocal minority may only represent the 2% of the population that object to the changes in our built environment.

Sort of like advocates for bike lanes?

[counterfactual]

Originally Posted by portapetey

Very interesting study:

http://www.metronews.ca/news/halifax/201...-halifax-residents-like-development.html

Now, I always question how any study is done and would love to see what the actual questions were.

But if it was a good survey, I hope that Municipal staff and council heed the results and accept that the very loud voices of a very vocal minority may only represent the 2% of the population that object to the changes in our built environment.

Thanks for the link. Finally a credible study showing the *actual* attitudes in the city about development.

Agree -- enough with news/media/development debates dominated by literally a tiny group of NIMBY activists, who basically change their name/cover/acronym/group depending on where they are in the city-- Save the View, Heritage Foundation, Friends of the Commons, Friends of Schmidtville, Friends of Friends of STV, Friends of Shadow Studies, Friends of No Development Anywhere, etc, etc.

[counterfactual]

Speaking of lost great buildings in this city, here are a few.

1. How about the School for the Blind, originally located at the intersection of Morris (University) and Tower, which was a beautiful ivy covered Victorian building:



Demolished in the 1960s for a freaking parking lot for the VG.

Now all that stands is this monument:




2. Or the original Exhibition Building on Tower Road:

[pblaauw]

Originally Posted by counterfactual

Speaking of lost great buildings in this city, here are a few.

1. How about the School for the Blind, originally located at the intersection of Morris (University) and Tower, which was a beautiful ivy covered Victorian building:



Demolished in the 1960s for a freaking parking lot for the VG.

Now all that stands is this monument:




2. Or the original Exhibition Building on Tower Road:

I remember playing in the building's playground...in the 80s. Wikipedia says it closed in 1983. (The cited article doesn't say 1983, however. )

[Keith P.]

It was demolished in the 1980s. I had a gf that taught there. She said it was a fire trap and a dump beyond belief. Given that the students were residents of the building it was impossible to keep it operating while doing necessary renos.

[Jonovision]

Some additional lights have been added to all the trees in Grand Parade.

20161223_001910_HDR by Jonovision23, on Flickr

[bluenoser]

$20M COVE transformation starts at old Dartmouth coast guard site

The buildings and wharves will be refurbished to make the site a hub for collaboration and innovation. It's called the Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurs, or COVE.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/cove-development-underway-dartmouth-1.3919993

[teddifax]

From Halifax ReTales, the following:

"Tony's Variety on the corner of Robie and Cunard has closed, I'm going to miss the Benjamin Button movie rental poster to make way for this proposal"

I can't copy the picture, but it will take up the entire block fronting Robie, from Cunard to the next corner. The complex will be (if approved) about 14 stories high, with a 4 storey pad.

[someone123]

Here's a description of the development: https://haligonia.ca/proposal-cunard-and-robie-st-13-storey-mixed-use-development-178428/

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by someone123

Here's a description of the development: https://haligonia.ca/proposal-cunard-and-robie-st-13-storey-mixed-use-development-178428/

That looks good. Here is a rendering from someone123's source:

[Hali87]

Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr


Untitled by Hali87, on Flickr

[IanWatson]

Demo has started on the building at the corner of Hollis and Bishop.

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Demo has started on the building at the corner of Hollis and Bishop.

What a shame.

It would be great if you could post some pics as I'm always interested to find out how they put buildings together in the past couple of centuries...

[JustinHiscock]

Originally Posted by IanWatson

Demo has started on the building at the corner of Hollis and Bishop.

What's going in its place?