What 'transformational' Halifax zoning changes could mean for your neighbourhood

A slew of possible zoning changes to create more housing in Halifax would alter the face of the city — and while some residents question the rapid growth, others say it's going in the right places.

Halifax municipal staff are suggesting various changes to planning documents, with the aim of creating 15,000 new units over the next three years, using money from the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund.

"It is a transformational opportunity to drive housing in our community," Jacqueline Hamilton, Halifax's executive director of planning and development, said during a recent budget committee meeting.

Halifax is getting $79 million over three years to hire dozens of planners and other staff to handle the work.

A recent provincial housing assessment said Halifax has a deficit of nearly 18,000 units, and 52,000 units will be needed by 2027 to catch up.

At least four units would be allowed in all residential areas through the urban service area, where there is already city water and wastewater infrastructure. Those could be any type of units, including backyard suites or accessory units.

The only exception would be in the historically Black community of Beechville, where other planning work is underway.

The rest of the proposed changes are mostly aimed at increasing density in the regional centre, which covers the Halifax peninsula, and Dartmouth within the Circumferential Highway.

There, all single-family residential areas — called established residential 1, or ER-1 — would be replaced with ER-2 and ER-3 zones. Buildings up to 11 metres high would be allowed in ER-2, and up to 12 metres high in ER-3, which is about three storeys.

The ER-3 zone would become the most common in residential areas because it's the most flexible. It would allow up to eight units of duplexes, townhomes, small apartments or condos to be built on a single lot.

The goal is to create more "missing middle housing," meaning medium-size buildings that fall between single-family homes and highrises.

The proposed changes would also allow buildings of seven to nine storeys around current or planned transit routes in corridor zones. One of the corridor zones could be extended down the north side of Windmill Road from Albro Lake Road to the Macdonald Bridge, and across an extra block on Victoria Road between Frances Street and Cherry Drive.

There would also be no minimum parking requirements for new development in the regional centre or the suburbs.

One of the fund's requirements is to increase density near post-secondary schools like universities and colleges. Some low-rise residential areas around Saint Mary's and Dalhousie universities, as well as the NSCC Institute of Technology Campus in the north end, would be zoned higher-order residential 2 (HR-2), allowing buildings of up to nine storeys.

Sharon Durant lives on Leeds Street beside the NSCC campus, in an area that would be rezoned. She said someone has already dropped by her and her neighbour's homes offering to buy them. But Durant, who has been in the home for 25 years, has no interest in selling and said people in the neighbourhood don't want tall buildings.

"I think Halifax is growing too fast, way too fast, and they're not prepared for ... like the street conditions, the traffic, everything. So it kind of makes me sad," she said.

Jennifer Szerb lives near Saint Mary's and has signed a letter with many of her neighbours asking the municipality to take the HR-2 zones around the school off the table.

They argue allowing buildings of up to nine storeys would hurt the character of the area and create major traffic issues. The change isn't needed to accommodate students, they say, especially in light of the university's plans to create 1,000 new residence units.

"Many of us feel like there's a pit in the centre of our stomach right now. This was such a sudden and major change, and I don't think that many Haligonians realize the impact," Szerb said.

Another change would allow buildings up to 40 storeys in the Centre areas, up from the current limit of 30 storeys. These are pockets where Halifax's highest buildings are located or planned, including by the Dartmouth approach of the Macdonald bridge, Quinpool Road, parts of the north end, and around Fenwick and South streets near the long-standing 35-storey Fenwick Tower.

Kortney Dunsby, sustainable cities co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre, said she's excited to see the changes, which she said fit with modern planning policy to boost density in areas where there are services in place.

Dunsby said there are many upsides to limiting urban sprawl: it's cheaper for the city — and taxpayers — to add housing in the core, and preserves natural forests and wetlands that are especially important amid the climate crisis.

From a social perspective, giving residents more opportunities to walk, bike or use transit where they live is better for their physical and mental health too, she said.

"It's really an opportunity to educate people on what more sustainable development patterns are, and what the benefits of those are," Dunsby said. 

"Major corridors that already have access to that transit system, and the systems to be able to move people around, is really the best place to put taller buildings."

Some proposed heritage conservation districts in residential areas would also expand, including around the flower streets in downtown Dartmouth, and become ER-2, which allows larger homes to be converted into multiple units or to add backyard suites.

The fund also requires that two per cent of the 15,000 units planned over the next three years be affordable. City staff said they will use the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's definition, which means these units must cost less than 30 per cent of a household's before-tax income.

Municipal staff have been preparing an affordable housing strategy that could include tools like "inclusionary zoning" — which requires new buildings to keep some units affordable. That report is expected later this year.

There are also dozens of specific developments staff are recommending should go ahead in suburban areas, including more than 15 in the Spryfield area. 

The webpage and interactive map laying out the accelerator fund changes went up in mid-January when public consultation opened. But the deadline to have feedback included in the staff report was Feb.16.

Last week, many councillors told planning staff they've had a flood of emails and calls from residents who had only recently learned of the proposed changes and development sites, or who were having difficulty understanding the details.

A request from Coun. Patty Cuttell to extend the timeline for public feedback by a week failed at council. But staff said people can still email the clerk's office to submit comments or petitions over the coming weeks and those comments will travel with the report and be seen by councillors. 

Halifax CAO Cathie O'Toole apologized about the lack of thorough communication during last week's council meeting, and said staff are doing the best they can under deadlines set by the federal government.

The municipality also said many of these ideas, like allowing multi-unit buildings in low-rise neighbourhoods, received public feedback through the Regional Plan review in the fall.

A report on the proposed changes is expected to come before council this spring for first reading, and staff can then make modifications before the report comes back for a public hearing, likely in April.