Quote:
Originally Posted by planarchy
Yes but he wasn't aware, nor should he have expected the Province, and the City to designate the area under special planning zone under Provincial statements of interest which allowed them to proceed without going through approval and permitting processes that everyone else must go through. Like continuous Burnside expansion or putting the highest height limits on government owned lands downtown, it's another example of government - and those that make the rules - directly competing with the private sector. Thiel has invested a lot of private money in the city and he should have a reasonable expectation to fair treatment.
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This is untrue. The project went through the full permitting and approval process as required by law. the Exception was used, to allow them to construct the below grade portions of the building, prior to final approvals. when they hit the argyle street level, they stopped going higher for 2-3 weeks until the final permits came in.
As mentioned, due to the public consultations the building was basically redesigned, in some pretty significant ways, and it takes time to build documentation sets for permits.
Halifax lacks a grading bylaw. Without this, the giant 4 square block hole would have sat empty for a year, untouched.
Did they get some special Consideration - Sure, but they also redesigned based on public feedback.