An indignant puff of huff hovers over Halifax Regional Council. Mayor Mike Savage says actions by the provincial government are dangerous and undemocratic. South-end councillor Waye Mason says the province is invading space that only the municipality can manage.
What’s causing this is indeed touchy. The province has disallowed a municipal bylaw that prohibits construction after seven o’clock at night in local neighbourhoods. Noise at night is the kind of thing urban voters complain about to their city councillors. The provincial government’s ear may not be tuned so finely. Conservatives hold only six of the twenty metro-area seats at Province House and the government is more concerned about the shortage of housing for a planned increase in population.
HRM Council claims the province’s intervention is unwarranted and unnecessary. The municipality has permits in place for almost 10,000 new units, well beyond the capacity of the existing construction industry. As for the future, it has removed restrictions on hi-rise development along major corridors across the peninsula.
What could go wrong? The first part of the strategy fell in place on cue. With interest rates at rock bottom, developers moved quickly to buy up property along corridors like Robie and Barrington. Eight-story-or-more rental and condo accommodation soon would replace old two-or-three-story houses, many now showing their signs of wear.
A century or more ago, those dwellings were built for big families. Today they provide apartments and rooms for students, couples or small families starting out in life, and those in their later years. The new owners, for the most part, are not interested in serving as landlords or ladies to this population nor are they prepared to invest in repairs or upgrades. The temptation instead is to abandon any pretence of maintenance and, frankly, to let the buildings become uninhabitable.
Maybe HRM didn’t think about this when it drew up the Centre Plan. Maybe it just assumed the developers would do their developer thing and proceed as soon as possible with new construction. Maybe that is why it provides them with an incentive to get on with things quickly by granting a substantial reduction in property tax for sites cleared of the existing structures.
Whatever the thought process – or lack thereof – the result has been an absolute reduction in affordable housing on peninsular Halifax at a time of increasing homelessness. High interests rates and a shortage of skilled labour mean it may be years before any new construction occurs on the growing number of vacant sites in areas close to universities and hospitals. Just where students and hospital workers can afford to live these days appears not to have been part of HRM’s focus on the future.
If there’s a straight line in all this is slants down to the right.
Seeking The Hypotenuse 