Quinpool residents upset with proposed development
Posted Sep 22, 2015 06:21:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Some residents in the Quinpool Road area aren’t happy after a plan to build two apartment towers — a 28-storey and 12-storey — has now merged into an updated proposal for a single 29-storey building.
The new proposal was the focus of a public meeting last week hosted by the District 7 and 8 planning advisory committee at Dalhousie University.
District 8 Councillor Jennifer Watts said residents were concerned about the original proposal of the two buildings at Robie Street and Quinpool Road because of the height of the buildings, and that was before it morphed in to a single 29-storey development.
“In this case, the height increased, so I think people were really frustrated because that was a part of their initial feedback was the height,” Watts said.
Judy Haiven is a local resident and a business professor at Saint Mary’s University, and said the development amounts to an eye sore with no open space.
“It’s seven times the height allowed for the area, it’s about five times the density, and there’s virtually no open public space,” Haiven said.
Haiven said residents should be speaking out against developments like this one, and asking for good safe neighbourhoods without too much traffic and manageable density.
“There’s only 13 per cent of the space that’s open for the public to use, so most of this 29-storey apartment development that Armco and Fares are talking about … is really only about lining their own pockets.”
The development is still in the discussion phase, but if it goes ahead, The Willow Tree Tower development from Armco Communities and W.M. Fares will feature 209 units, over 200 parking spots and over 10,000 sq. ft. of commercial space.
The District 7 and 8 planning advisory committee will review the project before making a recommendation to city staff.
