General Updates and News

[DigitalNinja]

Yupp... Makes us the odd ones, every other country besides ones in NA are more community oriented, but over here its everyman for himself, cars are the dominant creatures.
I know me comparing Halifax to cities in China is like comparing apples to oranges, but when I was in China I like it a lot better staying there then here, everything was so close and convenient, you could walk home with your groceries, walk out the door and find 10 good restaurants just such a nice community.

I think that when Halifax starts to densitify, housing needs to be provided for not only the rich but also the middle class a family that would go out and buy a 2-3 br house for 250g should be able to buy a condo with 2-3 br downtown for that amount as well.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

Yupp... Makes us the odd ones, every other country besides ones in NA are more community oriented, but over here its everyman for himself, cars are the dominant creatures.
I know me comparing Halifax to cities in China is like comparing apples to oranges, but when I was in China I like it a lot better staying there then here, everything was so close and convenient, you could walk home with your groceries, walk out the door and find 10 good restaurants just such a nice community.

I think that when Halifax starts to densitify, housing needs to be provided for not only the rich but also the middle class a family that would go out and buy a 2-3 br house for 250g should be able to buy a condo with 2-3 br downtown for that amount as well.

One thing I noticed on my last visit to Vancouver was that there were a bunch of IGA's all around downtown Vancouver that were exactly what you mentioned earlier - community oriented, small sized, grocerry stores. They still had full produce and everything; just in a smaller space and they were all over downtown. On that particular trip I ended up staying at the Westin Grand and one was just up the road - it was great. I never paid for any meals at the hotel or restaurants, i cooked in my room. I guess the best way to equate them was they were like the urban sobeys in Edmonton (Fresh I think is the model?).

They are called IGA Marketplaces. This is the one I was refering too.

[DigitalNinja]

Great to see these, lets hope that Halifax downtown can support one or two, would be nice for a "superstore marketplace" To replace the one on barrington.

[Halifax Privateer]

Kind of like .... Pete's Fruitique.

[DigitalNinja]

Except hopefully not as over priced.

[Halifax Privateer]

I've alway's thought a good bakerey(with real bagels), a deli, buthcher shop and fresh seafood would work.

[alps]

What do you folks think of a greenbelt/growth boundary for Halifax? Long Lake park, Blue Mountain, Terence Bay, and other protected areas around the city make for a good start.

[DigitalNinja]

Would be a good idea Alps, and then down the road once we reach an acceptable density they could start to expand out again.

[halifaxboyns]

Originally Posted by alps

What do you folks think of a greenbelt/growth boundary for Halifax? Long Lake park, Blue Mountain, Terence Bay, and other protected areas around the city make for a good start.

It's an interesting idea - but it raises a lot of questions. Like how do you compensate the land owners that would be affected by a freeze in development? I suspect you'd get a lot of push from developers and home builders against it.

But...you might get better reaction to an increase in density through the regional plan. Btw; with the city growing faster than expected, I'm guessing they will reopen the planner soon (start the work probably in 5 ot 7 years).

[planarchy]

Originally Posted by DigitalNinja

My girlfriend is Chinese, when she came here she was surprised that grocery stores take up so much valuable real estate, a store in China for produce can be 2-3 floors high maximizing available land. But this doesn't happen here. It is honestly part of NA/Canada though. This urban sprawl doesn't happen in the rest of the world where they have a larger population and less land, we have to much land that it becomes cheap to buy the land, so people just build low rise low density buildings. Problem with this is that it is not cheap in the long run, roads and infrastructure become high costs and a burden on the rest of the city. High rise have high startup costs but no where near the long term infrastructure costs.

The problem is that, for the most part, real estate here isn't valuable. And your are right: large tracts of land are available for little money and current MPS and zoning regulations are of little use to get anything that is remotely coherent between parcels. In addition, developers are often only required to pay initial service infrastructure costs, while the major costs - maintenance and replacement are passed on to the municipality. Low densities make this an expensive trend where the most severe financial implications have yet to be felt.

But today Sprawl does happen everywhere. Not so much in China as the gov't is in control of all land, but even there you are starting to see issues with speculative development. In India and Vietnam, sprawl is encouraged through the creation of so-called "special economic zones" that allow foreign investors to do as they please.

Even in traditionally compact and heavily controlled regions like Holland, with a long history of centralized or national planning strategies, they are dealing with issues of sprawl as demand for box retail and individual housing ownership increases.

I don't know what the solution is, but certainly efficient public transit systems, incentives for urban infill and high intensity use of the land, perhaps taxing inefficient use of land, and, maybe most of all, getting away from this manufactured ideal of single family home ownership.

[dmac26]

There are many issues contributing to sprawl in Halifax-many of those reasons being political. One issue that always comes to mind for me is that HRM is just too large! From Hubbards to Ecum Secum is a little ridiculous. I just dont think there is a tax base outside the immediate city to provide adequate services that far. There already is a growth boundary in the planning strategy, they use inside the circ highway as the urban core but there certainly is no limitation on growth outside that boundary. We need densification.

I agree these new highways will alleviate traffic in and out of many urban areas such as Burnside and Bayers Lake but I would rather see that money put into more efficient transit.

[Keith P.]

Learned to day from allnovascotia.com that the former Carroll Pontiac site on the Bedford Highway will not become condos after all. It has been leased by Steele Chrysler and they will be moving their Kempt Rd. Chrysler store there. Their Subaru franchise will move from its current shared space with Audi further down Kempt and take over the space on the corner of Kempt and Livingstone.

[DigitalNinja]

It would be interesting if we could resurrect the HDC and do something to promote density in Halifax.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by dmac26

There are many issues contributing to sprawl in Halifax-many of those reasons being political. One issue that always comes to mind for me is that HRM is just too large! From Hubbards to Ecum Secum is a little ridiculous. I just dont think there is a tax base outside the immediate city to provide adequate services that far.

There's no guarantee of equal services for all of the HRM. By population those areas are also a very small part of the municipality -- two of 23 districts contain something like 5-10% of the population and over 50% of the land area. Basically I think people make far too much of a deal out of this.

A regional authority like the HRM is a requirement for suburban sprawl regulation. In metropolitan areas where there are many small municipalities there is a race to the bottom, as there was when Halifax first lured businesses that might have located in Dartmouth with Bayers Lake.

Originally Posted by alps

What do you folks think of a greenbelt/growth boundary for Halifax? Long Lake park, Blue Mountain, Terence Bay, and other protected areas around the city make for a good start.

Greenbelts are not a bad idea but it is very easy to bring in regulations that encourage leap frog sprawl even farther from the city. Halifax is already particularly bad for this, with suburbs way out in areas like Sackville but very little development just west and south of the peninsula.

[Jstaleness]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Learned to day from allnovascotia.com that the former Carroll Pontiac site on the Bedford Highway will not become condos after all. It has been leased by Steele Chrysler and they will be moving their Kempt Rd. Chrysler store there. Their Subaru franchise will move from its current shared space with Audi further down Kempt and take over the space on the corner of Kempt and Livingstone.

Too Bad. I never understood why the dealerships were there in the first place. A 4 lane hwy that's busy 85% of the day just seems like the wrong place. As a driver I have enjoyed having the center lane not blocked by cars turning left into that spot for the last 6 months. All good things come to an end.

[someone123]

ANS had a sad article about Spirit Place, the seven storey Windsor Street development. Sue Uteck complained about how churches expect the city to deal with the horror of seven storey buildings along semi-major traffic routes.

Some councillors went on about how HRM by Design does not permit height (wrong -- it depends, and some areas go up to 83 m) and so they should not permit a seven storey building in this area (which, as far as I know, is not included in the HbD area). I truly feel for the few sane people working for the HRM who have to deal with this stuff.

The authors also suggested that council almost sent the development back to the drawing board and then mentioned a 17-4 vote in favour of it moving forward..?

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by someone123

The authors also suggested that council almost sent the development back to the drawing board and then mentioned a 17-4 vote in favour of it moving forward..?

I notice that allnovascotia.com sometimes has story titles that seem to be contrary to the content of the story. In this case was the author trying to create a controversial story where one didn't really exist? Surely with a 17-4 vote in favour there must have been many positive statements that could have been quoted by the author.

[Dmajackson]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

I notice that allnovascotia.com sometimes has story titles that seem to be contrary to the content of the story. In this case was the author trying to create a controversial story where one didn't really exist? Surely with a 17-4 vote in favour there must have been many positive statements that could have been quoted by the author.

There wasn't anything positive really.

When it comes to initiating projects councillors who are voting in favour normally remain quiet and just vote to end the discussion. Last night the only people who spoke were three that ultimately voted against it. It should be noted BTW that the councillor for the project (Watts) is a congregate of the church and as such did not vote on the matter.

[Jonovision]

Gallery eyes new building
No timeframe given on when feasibility study would begin Facility is largest art museum in Atlantic Canada It's home to province’s art collection and offers range of exhibitions and programs

METRO HALIFAX
Published: January 20, 2011 12:10 a.m.
Last modified: January 19, 2011 11:56 p.m.

A feasibility study will take place for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia to find out the price tag and benefits of a new, larger facility.

The current location on Hollis Street in downtown Halifax isn’t big or structurally sound enough to host the amount of art that gallery staff would like to display, Ray Cronin, director and CEO of AGNS, said yesterday.

“The limitations have become more and more apparent,” he said.

“So the option we’d like to explore is a new building.”

Cronin said the gallery currently has 15,000 pieces of art but is only able to display about 300 pieces at a time.

Another problem the gallery faces, Cronin said, is that because the buildings are older, it’s harder and more expensive to maintain the 50 per cent humidity and 20 C temperature needed for the art.

The Nova Scotia government announced yesterday it is investing $108,000 into the study. The federal government is chipping in $60,000 and AGNS $12,000.

The study will determine if the goal of having a new facility is realistic, Cronin said.

“If it seems possible and if we’re given the green light to go ahead, then we will,” he said.

Cronin said the amount of space they are looking for is about 100,000 square feet.

Currently, they have a total of 65,000 square feet.

[Grav]

I dont like the sound of that, I understand the need for more space, But moving out of the old one building?? We could end up with another wasted historic building rotting down town or being made into pointless offices. Plus i like the old building. They courtyard next to it is when I would expect for a downtown with its old lamps and abstract sculptures.

The new building (IF they decide to move) will no doubt be an environmentally friendly glass box with a curvy wall and roof isolated from everything elts by an over abundance of grass and other green space. It will be very bland, but at least it will be full of art work which is more than I can say for other modern buildings going up right now.