YMCA expansion headed to public consultation
Posted Feb 29, 2012 06:27:22 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The president of the YMCA of Greater Halifax and Dartmouth says the proposed expansion on South Park Street is taller than current height regulations allow – because that’s what the community wanted.
Regional council voted on Tuesday to push the $22 million project ahead to public hearings, in spite of the height issue.
Bette Watson Borg, YMCA president and CEO, says the organization took a long time and consulted a lot of people before drawing up the plans for the multi-use facility and its two 46-metre towers.
She says there’s clearly a need for more recreational facilities in HRM, and the new development fits the bill.
“To bring a C2 recreation facility, which is a full-service facility, with aquatics, swimming, indoor health, recreation, to bring that kind of amenity at no capital cost to the taxpayers and no ongoing operating cost to the taxpayers, we see that as a win-win-win for the citizens, our municipality and our YMCA,” she said.
The project has been approved under a policy clause that says exemptions to height restrictions can be made for developments that show significant “economic, social or cultural” benefits.
The same policy was used to approve public consultation on the Skye Halifax development, which includes two 48-storey towers.
But Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) says consistently overruling HRM By Design and its guidelines is creating confusion for would-be developers.
“We’ve gotta get our facts straight and get things straightened out so there’s certainty in the downtown again,” she said. “I’m very concerned about these developers that are saying to me, ‘I don’t feel too certain about things, so I’m not going to build.'”
No date has been set for the public hearing on either the YMCA expansion or the Skye Halifax project.
