Halifax's long-awaited Centre Plan approved

At long last, Halifax regional council has approved the first part of its plan to regulate new development in Halifax and Dartmouth.

The Centre Plan has been four years in the making.The so-called "Package A" deals with multi-unit developments in peninsularHalifax and sections of Dartmouth.

"This is a great day," Coun.Waye Mason said on Wednesday.

"This will provide more certainty for everyone," addedCoun.Shawn Cleary.

Several of the concerns raised at a public hearing Tuesday nightwill be dealt with when the second part of the Centre Plan which covers established residential neighbourhoods and park landis worked out.

It's expected to be ready for regional council by fall 2020.

More details on an affordable housing strategy should be ready thisspring.

Public hearing held

On Tuesday, Halifax developers criticizednew incentives for affordable housing in the municipality's proposed Centre Plan.

The plan currentlyenvisions a formula for fees adeveloper would have to pay in exchange for extra height allowances.

The money wouldbe kept in a reserve account and given out in grants to co-op housing projects and non-profit housing associations.

"As it is proposed, it will hurt small and medium-scale developers," Cesar Saleh of WM Fares Grouptold the hearing.

Municipal planner Kaisa Tota said Tuesday that an earlierproposal had envisioneddevelopers receiving extra height allowances for their projects in exchange for a certain number of affordable housing units.

But developers complained that idea would negatively impact 70 per cent of the industry. Halifax municipalplanners were also concerned about overseeing who gets the affordable units and for how long.

"We went back to the drawing board," said Tota. "We didn't want to risk coming to council with a proposal that would be difficult to implement."

Unhappiness with new proposal

Municipal staff then came up with thesystem of upfront fees. Butthat is not going over well with developers, either.

"The question is what do you do with this money?" said Alex Halef, with developer BANC Group."We don't know, which is part of the problem."

Peter Polley, a home builder, said he believed it would negatively affecthousing affordability in the city.

"I would urge council todefer the adoption of the current density bonus provision of the Centre Plan until more work is done on an affordable housing plan," he said.

There was also close to a dozen individual property owners at Tuesday's hearing who had concerns about the impact of the Centre Plan on their sites.

One of them was Canada Lands, the federal Crown corporation overseeing the redevelopment of Shannon Park, a 36-hectare site in Dartmouth.

A director with Canada Lands, Chris Millier, said the current version of theCentre Plan calls for a collector road to be built right through Shannon Park, joining Windmill Road to the Bedford Institute of Oceanography.

"It isn't consistent with urban design principles," Millier said. "We envision a street grid for a pedestrian-oriented neighbourhood."