Proposed QEII parking garage will interfere with Common: councillor

Halifax South-Downtown Councillor Waye Mason is speaking out about a proposal from the province that he feels goes against the city's best interests.

The QEII hospital expansion would see a new outpatient centre, cancer centre and research and innovation centre added to the site, but Mason says that the province recently requested to purchase land from the city to facilitate construction of a 900-car parkade.

“Their own plan said that they could accommodate all the parking they needed on their site,” Mason tells NEWS 95.7's The Rick Howe Show.

Mason says the province is asking for two parcels of land, one at the intersection of Summer St. and Bell Rd., and the other in between the Wanderer's Grounds and the Museum of Natural History.

The first parcel of land is triangular, and Mason says eventually it will be home to a heat plant.

“They're paving that now for a temporary parking lot while they build this garage. But what I'm told is they plan on building an incinerator and heat steam facility there,” he explains.

But it's the second parcel of land that Mason has concerns about. 

“There needs to be parking at the hospital but their own plan doesn't show building it there, any of it there,” he says. “They're choosing to tear down the existing multi-storey garage to build a new multi-storey garage that their plan doesn't even say that they need at the end of the day.”

Located on the West side of Summer Street., the parking lot is currently used by museum visitors, Wanderer's game attendees, and the Halifax Junior Bengal Lancers equestrian centre.

A photo highlights the two parcels of land the province wants to purchase from the city. (Photo via Google Maps)

“Surely there's a way around this without damaging the Common, which I think building this there will impact,” Mason explains.

The councillor says the province has been trying to consult with the city behind closed doors. But Mason wants the plans to be public.

“I want the province to put the entire plan in the public and then city council would want to have a presentation from Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal or Nova Scotia Lands, in public, at council,” he says.

Mason says he doesn't want the province to get preferential treatment.

“I don't know why the province thinks they should be treated differently than anybody else who wants to buy a piece of property or change these rules,” he adds.

Mason says it would be very hard to say no to the province, who could expropriate the land if they chose to. But he wants the context to be made public.

“People might say well I'm okay with a parking garage I guess, but when they see the entire thing — will there be pedway connection? Are they building the heat plant? What's the entire thing going to look like?” he asks. “It is substantially different from what was publicly discussed and what's on their website.” 

Mason also says because of the newly-adopted Centre Plan, he's not sure the QEII needs underground parking at all. The new zoning laws would allow a building up to 28-storeys to be built on the site.

“Well when I look at the plan the buildings are only eight and 10 storeys tall at the most, most of them around six storeys tall, seven. Well let's put the parking above ground… and then put the hospital in a tower above it,” he says.

Mason doesn't disagree that the hospital's renovation is important for the peninsula, but says the surrounding sites and the look of the Halifax Common shouldn't be affected.

“We want to see the hospital get renovated, we want to see this investment, but I think there's a better way to do it,” he adds.

After reaching out to the provincial departments overseeing the plan, Mason says he hasn't received an adequate response, despite rumours that the parking garage tender will be issued this coming week.

“They've never publicly said why they're changing their minds,” he says. “I think the public deserves to see the entire thing and we need to have a discussion about that.”