If a small group can do it, why can’t City Hall?
MEDIA RELEASE, MAY 12, 2019
KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Development Option Halifax is calling on the Mayor and Council to require HRM planning staff to provide 3-D models to let citizens see what Centre Plan’s changes to the city will really look like, before the Plan is approved.
Faced with the lack of perspective, the volunteer citizen group recently commissioned a proportional 3-D-printed model of proposed developments at Spring Garden Road and Robie Streets. The model, above, reveals precisely how out-of-scale these developments will be – at 80% the square footage of the convention centre!
“This model presents better options for respectful in-fill on the last historic neighbourhood on the Halifax Common. the 16, 20, 26 and 30-storey towers are simply not necessary,” says architectural student and modeller Hadrian Laing. “It should be done for all developments,” he concludes.
Retired SMU business professor Larry Haiven lives in Schmidtville, a downtown Halifax neighbourhood with a 35-foot height limit, but a “hidden density” similar to many European cities. He asks, “This technology is readily available, effective and cheap. So why isn’t HRM Planning modelling what the proposed changes under the Centre Plan will look like? How does the Centre Plan prioritize opportunities for in-fill or better use of empty land ahead of “up-zoning” or increasing heights in established neighbourhoods?”
Its pretty clear that citizens are confused because there have been two processes for the two Carlton Street developments on the single block. People should have the chance to be consulted on the two proposals together and see the physical 3-D model before the proposals continue – and this should be a requirement of the Centre Plan.
Development Options Halifax is asking citizens to show support for the 3-D model to be the new normal for city building by signing on to their petition at https://forms.gle/3enTs6PfSkmMmNW48.
For more information, contact:
Peggy Cameron p.cameron@ns.sympatico.ca
Larry Haiven larry.haiven@smu.ca
This link is not about creating 3D models as it says in the article. It is to Sign a Petition to stop the development as proposed. What is the NS advocate trying to bamboozle us? What you have Peggy Cameron on your pay roll?
Development Options Halifax is asking citizens to show support for the 3-D model to be the new normal for city building by signing on to their petition at https://forms.gle/3enTs6PfSkmMmNW48.