Province stymies city planning, again

Premier Tim Houston don’t need no evidence

By Antonia Zwissler

There are a lot of municipal planning PDFs that no one would ever read unless it were part of their job. Like it is for councillors, municipal staff, and citizens who respond to surveys, are part of a club who want to take seriously their responsibility to their local democracy. And maybe, the provincial minister of municipal affairs, John Lohr, should read these PDFs too.

On August 8, Lohr sent a letter to Halifax mayor Andy “Filmore” rejecting Halifax’s Regional Plan. One thing he took issue with was that in the plan, the city said people can’t put up buildings within 30 metres of watercourses, that is, within 30 metres of a lake, river, or brook (etc.).

Since the last election, premier Tim Houston’s Tories have been concerned with their provincial goal to “Make It Happen,” using Common Sense™. One thing they want to do is solve the housing crisis. In a vacuum, that means building residential units wherever possible, environmentally sensitive watercourse or not. In practice, a democratic mandate requires more time (and more PDFs) than is fun to deal with. But one would hope the provincial government can get it together and study up on how Halifax works if they are going to keep making use of their power to push the city around.

One issue with building housing wherever there is room, even if it is closer than 30 metres to a river, is that seven years ago, the city made a plan to stop doing that by this year at the latest. In 2018, seven years ago, the city’s Halifax Green Network Plan was released. One of this plan’s aims is to increase “the standard watercourse buffer requirement from 20 to 30 m for watercourses that are greater than 50 cm wide.” Specifically, by 2025 at the latest.