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  #41  
Old Posted Jan 23, 2013, 12:13 AM
worldlyhaligonian worldlyhaligonian is offline
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Originally Posted by worldlyhaligonian View Post
Now the wait begins to hear from the "community oriented", anti-development crowd... unless this is approved already.

They'll want to lop off at least 8 stories. Welcome to Halifax folks.
I'm either an oracle or this is typical. I posted the above comments approx a year ago.
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  #42  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2013, 5:22 AM
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Here's a report with some more renderings and floor plans: http://www.housingtrust.ca/home/wp-m...nceptplans.pdf

One of the renderings. Looks like the buildings integrate well with Gottingen Street:



Hopefully there will be some new Gottingen Terrace renderings soon as well.
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  #43  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2013, 6:58 AM
fenwick16 fenwick16 is offline
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Originally Posted by someone123 View Post
Here's a report with some more renderings and floor plans: http://www.housingtrust.ca/home/wp-m...nceptplans.pdf

One of the renderings. Looks like the buildings integrate well with Gottingen Street:



Hopefully there will be some new Gottingen Terrace renderings soon as well.
It appears as though one tower is 11 - 12 storeys high. I wonder if density bonusing outside the Halifax downtown has finally been allowed? The province has been sitting on the request for about a year now - http://metronews.ca/news/halifax/276...using-request/ and http://thechronicleherald.ca/busines...bonusing-issue . This same issue has been holding up the Centre Plan.
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  #44  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2013, 2:30 PM
Drybrain Drybrain is offline
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Those renderings look great. They really break up the street wall, it seems--none of this monolithic superblock look.


God, I really want this and G.Terrace built, soon. Not just because they'll fill in the worst cluster of holes in the area, but because both seem to promise dramatically superior architecture, compared to the other newish stuff in the neighbourhood. Hopefully they'll mark the end of the pre-fabricated vinyl-siding North End condo.

EDIT: Caveat: Not too sure about the tallest of the buildings being pink, however. Maybe the varied colour scheme is an homage to the saltbox streetscapes nearby, but having big buildings draped in primary colours kinda looks like a kid went crazy with giant crayons.

Last edited by Drybrain; Apr 13, 2013 at 3:11 PM.
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  #45  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2013, 2:55 PM
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Density bonusing is still waiting on the province. This would be an MPS amendment to get the height.
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  #46  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2013, 4:19 PM
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Density bonusing is still waiting on the province. This would be an MPS amendment to get the height.
Thank you for the information Waye.
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  #47  
Old Posted Apr 13, 2013, 6:41 PM
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I don't think the colours chosen for the renderings are necessarily what will be built.

I agree that these are a step up from other newer buildings along Gottingen, both in terms of design and density. We'll see what happens I guess, but I have never felt so optimistic about the neighbourhood. Like I've said before, back around 2000 I don't think people would have predicted this kind of progress.
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  #48  
Old Posted Jul 7, 2013, 6:36 PM
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I wonder how much longer it will be before construction starts on these. The Centre Plan bill has now been passed and at one point Ross Cantwell speculated that construction might start in summer 2013 at the earliest.

With all the other positive developments happening along Gottingen it seems like these buildings and the new Gottingen Terrace plan might be enough for the street to move past its old reputation.
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  #49  
Old Posted Jul 8, 2013, 1:25 AM
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As I just posted in the other thread, probably 2.5 years away from a completed Centre Plan. Regional Plan wraps in November, then the process begins. It takes a lot of time to change land use bylaws.

Last edited by Waye Mason; Jul 8, 2013 at 11:05 AM.
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  #50  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2013, 12:18 AM
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Public Information Meeting - Case 18547 & 18548
When : Thu, October 10, 7pm – 9pm
Where : 2285 Gottingen Street, Halifax, NS (Halifax North Memorial Public Library) (map)

Case 18547 Request by the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia for lands at 2183 Gottingen Street to 1) amend the Halifax Peninsula LUB by adding the site to Schedule Q; 2) to amend the LUB height precinct to increase allowable building height; and 3) to enter into a development agreement to allow a 6 storey, 115 unit building.

Case 18548 Request by the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia for lands at 2215 Gottingen Street to 1) amend the Halifax Peninsula LUB by adding the site to Schedule Q; 2) to amend the LUB height precinct to increase allowable building height; and 3) to enter into a development agreement to allow a 9 storey, 124 unit building.
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  #51  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2013, 4:18 AM
halifaxboyns halifaxboyns is offline
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Originally Posted by Waye Mason View Post
As I just posted in the other thread, probably 2.5 years away from a completed Centre Plan. Regional Plan wraps in November, then the process begins. It takes a lot of time to change land use bylaws.
It took Calgary 5 years to write a whole new land use bylaw. Wood Buffalo (Fort McMurray) seems to have done it in a year, but the cost was huge.
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  #52  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2013, 1:41 PM
RyeJay RyeJay is offline
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It took Calgary 5 years to write a whole new land use bylaw. Wood Buffalo (Fort McMurray) seems to have done it in a year, but the cost was huge.
Why did Fort McMurray pay for such a fast process? Were they desperate? Was the amount not 'huge' for their purse? Did they want completion since they are booming and they want to avoid a municipal mess?
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  #53  
Old Posted Sep 11, 2013, 4:36 PM
halifaxboyns halifaxboyns is offline
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Why did Fort McMurray pay for such a fast process? Were they desperate? Was the amount not 'huge' for their purse? Did they want completion since they are booming and they want to avoid a municipal mess?
My understanding is that with the change in the Regional Manager, he saw the downtown core of the town as the priority and so was able to secure from their regional council $ to hire consultants to down the downtown plan and do a downtown bylaw. But it wasn't cheap...(I've heard somewhere on the order of about 5-10 million in consulting fees, staff time (overtime due to public engagement), etc.) but don't quote that as accurate.

It comes back to the age old triangle: time, money and quality. He wanted it quick - which cost a lot, but the question becomes the quality of the job. I know we used to update the bylaw a few times a year and it took us months to do each one of those! I had a quick look at some of the bylaw and already I found a couple spelling errors...

The issue though that remains from when I worked there is: If you are going to build towers (something like trillium or bigger) where are you going to house the workers? There was a provision to allow work camps in the townsite on certain size lots; but I think that was removed (we only ever did one that I recall anyway). So housing your workers was always the big stumbling block - not like HRM where the works are all locals. So unless someone is going to buy a hotel (which I know some of the oil companies did - they bought old run down hotels and reno'd them for workers) - how do workers get there?

Just to give you a perspective - when I worked in the RM; we had 6 different proposals for towers come forward (this is prior to the work they've done on the Lower Townsite to encourage inward growth). None of the proposals has ever been built, mainly because of the worker situation.

Last edited by halifaxboyns; Sep 11, 2013 at 5:06 PM.
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  #54  
Old Posted Sep 12, 2013, 2:36 AM
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Interesting interview with Ross Cantwell in Allnovascotia tonight. He suggested that the mayor personally had a hand in getting this project going again after it was basically on hold because staff didn't want to allow the extra height.

It seems totally crazy that a development like this would be held back; these buildings would be great for the area and they're on a major street in the urban core. If it weren't possible to do even 6 floors here then how would the city possibly hit its infill targets?
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  #55  
Old Posted Sep 12, 2013, 10:54 AM
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There has been loose talk of it taking $2-3 million to hire consultants to complete the centre plan in a decent amount of time. Recognizing that it is a massive job to harmonize and replace all of the LUBs and secondary planning strategies that go back to the 1970s and covered 2 different former cities, and setting community planning areas up. Replacing old style zoning with form based planning is also a huge task - look at the recently approved Dartmouth Mainstreet plan, it was started in 2008, and was just a small area.
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  #56  
Old Posted Sep 12, 2013, 5:32 PM
halifaxboyns halifaxboyns is offline
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Originally Posted by Waye Mason View Post
There has been loose talk of it taking $2-3 million to hire consultants to complete the centre plan in a decent amount of time. Recognizing that it is a massive job to harmonize and replace all of the LUBs and secondary planning strategies that go back to the 1970s and covered 2 different former cities, and setting community planning areas up. Replacing old style zoning with form based planning is also a huge task - look at the recently approved Dartmouth Mainstreet plan, it was started in 2008, and was just a small area.
I'm not surprised that HRM would consider that and it is probably the way to go. It will be hugely complicated - I remember some of the stuff in the Halifax Secondary plans was really tricky!

The one thing I will put back on the table is the suggestion I got from the American Planning Association conference - rethink the term multi-residential development. The peninsula and Dartmouth should consider encouraging small 3-4 storey walk up apartment buildings in the 'stable' residential neighbourhoods, so that you could get a bit of extra density. Let the height be determined based on the context around you - if it's bungalows next to your site then 3 storeys, if higher you can do 4. You could easily get 4-8 dwelling units in these buildings and design them to look and fit in quite well. Chicago mastered it well and these walkup buildings fit in so well in the low density neighbourhoods.

I'll have to watch for the RFP for a consultant, I don't bill too much
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  #57  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2013, 1:21 PM
Northend Guy Northend Guy is offline
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From the Herald Site:

Quote:
Developer sees movement on projects
September 12, 2013 - 7:24pm By REMO ZACCAGNA Business Reporter

The proponent behind two Gottingen Street developments is hoping work will begin in a year now that his proposal is moving through the municipal approvals process.

Ross Cantwell, president of the Housing Trust of Nova Scotia, has proposed to build an eight-storey building at 2183 Gottingen, site of the former Met building, and a nine-storey building at the former Diamonds Bar location at 2215 Gottingen.

The non-profit group purchased the sites in April 2010 for $3 million, money it received from the province under the Canada-Nova Scotia Co-operation Agreement on Economic Diversification because of its plan to offer half of the units as affordable housing.

The trust submitted an application in December 2011, months after demolishing the original buildings, but confirmed this week that Halifax Regional Municipality had scheduled a public information meeting on Oct. 10, the first step in the approvals process.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said, adding that the project was well supported by Mayor Mike Savage and Coun. Jennifer Watts, who urged him to organize an open house to inform residents on the development.

“It kind of didn’t go anywhere, even though we had all the engineering plans, and architectural plans, sewer servicing schematics, traffic impact studies — we had our application fee. Everything went in and it just sat there.”

The proposal requires an amendment to the land-use bylaw, an adjustment to the height precinct, and a development agreement.

The former Met site will feature 115 units, with the Gottingen side rising to six storeys and then to eight storeys on the Maitland Street end because of a six-metre grade difference.

The other site will rise to nine storeys on Gottingen and then 11 storeys in the back, housing 124 units.

After community consultations, several larger three-bedroom units were added to the design.

“It kind of makes our economic model a little bit harder, but it’s what the community wants,” Cantwell said.

Half the units will be sold at market rates, with the remaining being affordable housing, some of them having rent geared to income, meaning tenants pay 30 per cent of their income to rent, with the rest subsidized.

Cantwell estimates that the project could get started within a year, “depending on (the pace) HRM wants to move it through and whether we run into any sort of significant opposition from the community.”

He added that there are “still financing issues we’re working through with the province and others.”

The public information meeting will be on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Halifax North Memorial Public Library at 2285 Gottingen St.
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  #58  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2013, 2:59 PM
Drybrain Drybrain is offline
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Originally Posted by halifaxboyns View Post
The peninsula and Dartmouth should consider encouraging small 3-4 storey walk up apartment buildings in the 'stable' residential neighbourhoods, so that you could get a bit of extra density.
I totally agree with this--the idea of "stable" neighbourhoods is dogma in Canadian cities, but we miss some fantastic infill and densification opportunities. Keep the older housing stock, especially the rowhouses and duplexes and Victorian homes, but when it comes to underused lots and stuff like this, why not knock them down and build 12 apartment/condo units?
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  #59  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2013, 3:35 PM
ILoveHalifax ILoveHalifax is offline
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I suppose it would make sense to some to force everybody who wants a traditional house with a lawn and yard to move to the suburbs. We could tear down all the houses on the peninsula and build some beige vinyl 3 story apartment houses. I wonder if this proposal contradicts the fact that many are so sad that we tore down the slums of Jacob St and built apartment houses
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  #60  
Old Posted Sep 13, 2013, 4:09 PM
Drybrain Drybrain is offline
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Originally Posted by ILoveHalifax View Post
I suppose it would make sense to some to force everybody who wants a traditional house with a lawn and yard to move to the suburbs. We could tear down all the houses on the peninsula and build some beige vinyl 3 story apartment houses. I wonder if this proposal contradicts the fact that many are so sad that we tore down the slums of Jacob St and built apartment houses
That's not even remotely what was suggested--in fact, I believed my post mentioned retaining the majority of the existing housing stock and instead targeting small, shabby houses on large lots as candidates for demolition.
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