by Antonia Zwissler
At the first council meeting after the province’s most recent usurpation of Halifax’s city plans, on Oct. 7, the room was tense. Councillors were bewildered that they learned about the whole city becoming an “interim planning area” from reporters’ texts and emails and scratched their heads at what it even meant to be an “interim planning area.”
The province’s news release included a list of nine areas in the HRM the minister of municipal affairs, John Lohr, chose as “surburban growth area opportunity sites.” What wasn’t clear, was if, with interim planning status, those sites would be developed without city input. Turns out, it may mostly be a performative provincial flex.
City input tends to include research into waterway and road capacity, emergency access and exits, and a look at the surrounding ecology. In the past, provincially selected Special Planning Areas have included Southdale/Mount Hope, aka the development that’s been damaging Dartmouth’s Eisner Cove Wetland.
Two of the nine new suburban sites are in councillor Patty Cuttell’s District 11. She described council’s debate as a “kangaroo court,” getting a wry smile from Kathryn Morse, her neighbour in city hall chambers.
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