HALIFAX - The process by which Rank Inc.’s new business super-complex, Nova Centre, was approved by HRM Council has lacked significant public input since the early stages of development in 2005. The investment of over $50 million dollars per government has, over the last year, prompted community interest groups, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, journalists, and Halifax MP Megan Leslie to direct attention to the lack of due public consultation, especially since the majority of those polled are against it.  The unanimous municipal, provincial and federal funding raises questions about government responsibility to public interest. HRM Open Projects gave artist Scott Saunders the space and means to address this conflict. His installation of Town Square, 100 mannequin figures wearing business suits strewn across the rubble foundation of the former Chronicle Herald building, is an artwork that is not a solution to the outcome of private wheeling and dealing, but is one response to it.

This feature first appeared in the Summer 2011 National Issue of Spacing Magazine. SAINT JOHN - Saint John, like many other cities its size, has suffered immensely from suburbanization over the past few decades. The city has struggled with skyrocketing property taxes and inadequate service delivery as thousands have moved away from the  core — the city’s population is an estimated 70,000, yet the daytime population is approximately 122,000 once people from the surrounding bedroom communities arrive downtown for work. However, two major projects currently underway in Saint John could reinvigorate the city and serve as a model for other Maritime communities that are facing similar predicaments.

CHARLOTTETOWN - A brand new boutique hotel, the Holman Grand, is opening later this month in the city. As the final touches are being added to the rooms, atrium and lobby and exterior, it's causing quite a stir amongst Islanders. It was supposed to look like a heritage restoration of a department store from the 1850s with visually appealing upper floors. Instead, its façade has been muted and the upper floors look like they were built for a government agency in the late 1970s. Overseen by Homburg Development, the project has morphed from conception to delivery. How then, did this come to be? Let the following photos be your guide and decide for yourself.

HALIFAX - The CBC and YMCA buildings occupy a prominent corner in Halifax - a stone's throw from the bustling Spring Garden Road, the Citadel and Public Gardens. In recent years, its neighbours have undergone extensive changes, including the addition of the Martello atop Park Lane Mall and the construction of the Paramount Apartments, directly across from the Public Gardens. And while much of the block has “grown-up”, the CBC building and the adjacent YMCA have sat comfortably, tucked away between civic landmarks, new residential towers and a busy retail strip. But now, the CBC and YMCA are ready and willing to work together to exploit the potential of the strategic place that they hold in the city. View in Google Streetview [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="568" caption="Top: Current view of CBC building from Bell Road. Bottom: Conceptual rendering of proposed development."][/caption] View in Google Streetview [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="568" caption="Top: Current view from South Park Street. Bottom: Proposed development."][/caption] In December 2010, the YMCA and CBC Radio-Canada submitted a Plan Amendment Application to HRM Planning Services to allow for the joint development of their properties. The current application seeks site specific amendments to the Regional Municipal Planning Strategy, the Halifax Municipal Planning Strategy, the Downtown Halifax Secondary Municipal Planning Strategy and the Downtown Halifax Land Use By-Law. Current regulations limit post-bonus building height to 23 metres (CBC) and 49 metres (YMCA); the application seeks to increase the height limit only for the CBC site in order to match current height limits in place for the YMCA parcel.

HALIFAX - Forty years after its inception, the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) is still fighting to make Nova Scotia an environmental success story. To mark the occasion, the EAC is undertaking a “40 Days of Action” campaign that kicked off with a picnic next to the Cogswell Interchange in Halifax today. The site was selected because it too is celebrating 40 years. The interchange was to be part of Harbour Drive, a highway to run along the waterfront, much like in Boston. The Harbour Drive project was halted thanks to the efforts of concerned Haligonians, while Boston’s went ahead only later to be moved underground. Forty years ago, Brian Gifford was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Ecology Action Centre. “I feel very proud”, states Gifford. “I’m amazed at all the energy that has been put in to the Ecology Action Centre”. The EAC was founded on the need for a recycling program but has since branched out into seven committee focus areas—energy, wilderness, food, built environment, transportation, marine and coastal. Gifford continues, “It’s good to celebrate but things are more serious now. There needs to be more action.”

HALIFAX - On May 3, 2010, The Coasts' Tim Bousquet wrote an article titled Proposed YMCA/CBC development will break HRM By Design height limits which covered the YMCA/CBC buildings deconstruction on South Park and Sackville Streets and the Y's controversial future development in the same location. Nearly a year later, HRM By Design is hosting a public information session at City Hall in Halifax, NS tonight, Thursday, April 21st at 7pm. As reported on the New Halifax YMCA website, the Public Information Session is a chance for the public to get a ...

Halifax, Nova Scotia Photo by Dean Bouchard, member of Spacing Atlantic's flickr pool.

HALIFAX REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY - In early April, Halifax Regional Council approved a two hundred and fifty million dollar expansion to Bayers Lake Business Park, which will be built on eighty hectares (one hundred and ninety seven acres). Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) will sell the land to the developer, Banc Developments. Almost doubling the Park's retail space, a project this big deserves careful consideration and public consultation. Instead, Council approved a quarter-billion dollar development in a private meeting, with no public input. Bayers Lake was originally planned as a light industrial park, similar to Burnside Industrial Park in Dartmouth. Lacewood Drive was extended to Bayers Lake to encourage retail development and big box stores like Costco were soon tenants. Retail space grew beyond expectations, creating huge traffic problems that Bayers Lake's roads simply can't handle. To relive congestion a new entrance to Bayers Lake is currently under construction, the Washmill Lake underpass. The high cost of the Washmill Lake underpass partially explains why Council approved this new expansion. The Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) Business Park Plan for Bayers Lake recommends that "HRM should maximize development potential of the remaining lands in Bayers Lake to provide income for necessary transportation upgrades". The road upgrades in Bayers Lake are necessary only because of poor planning and inadequate transportation options. A municipality shouldn't have to rely on income from new development simply to provide appropriate infrastructure in an already built-up area.