Halifax council passes plan to prepare city for 1 million people

Halifax councillors have passed a plan guiding growth in the region for years to come, but say there is nothing they can do about provincial housing rules many residents called a "massive overreach" from the provincial government into municipal affairs.

On Thursday, residents at city hall spoke for hours at a public hearing on the new regional municipal planning strategy. It will replace the current regional plan from 2014 by changing a slew of bylaws and planning documents across the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Staff have said the upgrade was needed to prepare the region to support one million people, in light of Halifax's unexpected population growth ranging from two to nearly four per cent since 2021.

Staff project Halifax could hit that million mark by 2050 under certain scenarios.

The new plan continues the city's goal of densification, and aims to have 75 per cent of new development go in the urban area where water, sewer and transit services exist.

But multiple speakers raised concerns about the province's special planning areas, where they have taken over development control from the municipality in a bid to fast-track housing. They were especially concerned about the areas in current green spaces around Sandy Lake, and Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes, where a national urban park is proposed.

"We need council to stand up for what residents are begging them to safeguard — and stand up to the province's massive overreach into our municipal affairs," Jillian Ramsay of the Ecology Action Centre said outside the meeting.

Ramsay said the plan was weakened by special planning areas and the province's minimum planning requirements. 

Those requirements, which Halifax had to pass by June 30, include allowing residential uses in most zones, removing bedroom-unit requirements for buildings going up before April 2027, and allowing new housing forms like shipping containers or modular homes.

"The minimum planning requirements are a road map to sprawl, and the special planning areas are where they want that sprawl to happen," said Ramsay, who also spoke for Our HRM Alliance — a coalition of more than 60 environment, business, and health groups. 

"The province is building cities we don't want to live in. You don't have to let them do it."

Kathleen Hull said residents want to help push back against these moves by the province.

"We want you to reach out to us, and we'll in any way do what we have to do, and say what we have to say to the province," Hull said.

But after the hearing, municipal lawyer John Traves told council that the Minister of Growth and Development has been given the legal authority to make development decisions in the municipality, including special planning areas.

Any action Halifax takes that would conflict with those decisions "would not be permitted in law and so it would be struck down as void," he said.

Coun. Shawn Cleary said that while council may not have legal room to push back on these issues, he was glad people spoke up.

"I'm hoping that filters its way back to Province House so that they know what our residents feel," Cleary said during the meeting.

Some councillors repeated concerns from last year that the direction to remove requirements around how many bedrooms should be in new units will have damaging consequences, resulting in buildings of bachelor or one-bedroom apartments.

"That's a problem around supporting families, that's a problem around affordability," said Coun. Patty Cuttell. 

She asked staff to consider how the municipality can require higher bedroom mixes in the upcoming plan on Halifax's suburban areas, which council unanimously passed.

"We have so few tools in our toolbox at the municipal level to make housing affordable, and this is one tool that we had that has been removed," said Coun. Kathryn Morse.

"I think we have to do whatever we can to try to find a way … to get the mix back."

The new regional plan does expand the buffer zone, where no new development can occur, around waterways, wetlands and the coastline from 20 to 30 meters. But, where this prevents a property from being "reasonably developed" a landowner could find alternate approaches through a development agreement.

The plan also outlines that commercial solar energy projects are allowed in certain rural zones automatically, or by development agreement in urban and suburban areas where staff said there is a more pressing need to preserve land for housing.

It also streamlines short-term rental rules in rural areas to allow one rental per lot that doesn't have to be owner-occupied. This permission has already existed in most districts in the western parts of Halifax, like the St. Margarets Bay area, but will now apply to the Eastern Shore, Lawrencetown, Musquodoboit Valley, Porters Lake and Fall River.

Staff said the regional plan sets up work over the next few years to complete plans for the suburban areas of Halifax, and a strategic growth and infrastructure plan that will assess what water and wastewater projects are needed to support the growing city.