Halifax Regional Municipality, (HRM), like many cities around the world, is facing a critical need for more housing. To address this shortage, HRM applied to the federal government’s Housing Accelerator (HAF) Program for funding to increase the supply of housing. 

As part of its HAF plan, HRM is proposing a massive rewrite, or “transformational change” of the Centre Plan - the City’s main planning policy, which was approved in 2021, after a multi-year process and extensive community engagement. By contrast, HRM’s HAF plan was hastily developed, and almost entirely without community consultation. Yet, if the HAF plan is approved, it will override the Centre Plan.

A few of the proposed changes under the HAF plan include:

• Increasing allowable heights up to 40 storeys in Centre Zones, including portions of Fenwick Street, Lucknow Street, Gottingen Street, Quinpool Road, Robie Street, Young Street, and Spring Garden Road, Halifax, and Highfield Park Drive and Wyse Road, Dartmouth.
  
  
• Increasing allowable heights along Corridors, including portions of Agricola Street, Barrington Street, Inglis Street, Isleville Street, Oxford Street, Queen Street, and Windsor Street, Halifax; and Pleasant Street, Portland Street, Prince Albert Road and Wyse Road, Dartmouth;
  
  
• Abolishing the ER1 Zone, (single-family home zoning) and replacing it with an ER3 designation, which would allow townhouses and apartment buildings with up to 8 units and 20 bedrooms on any lot of 600 m2 or more.  

Why Are We Asking for a better HAF plan for HRM?

The goals of the HAF are to build more homes, faster and support the development of communities that are more affordable, diverse and climate resilient.

We know HRM needs more housing, and we fully support the goals of the HAF. However, we do not believe that HRM’s current HAF proposal will meet the goals of the HAF.

×     HRM’s proposal will NOT result in building more homes, faster.

In conversations with the province last year, HRM maintained that it was interest rates, lack of labour, and supply chain issues that were slowing housing construction. Therefore, rewriting HRM planning policy will neither get at the root cause of the problem nor result in more homes, faster. 

×     HRM’s proposal will NOT improve housing affordability or diversity.

Far from improving housing affordability, the proposed up-zoning will worsen the affordability crisis by fueling land speculation, driving up property values, and incentivizing the demolition of existing affordable housing stock. 

×     HRM’s proposal will NOT promote climate resilience.

HRM’s current HAF proposal will not make HRM more climate resilient, but less so.

The HAF proposal relies heavily on a strategy of increasing allowable heights throughout the urban centre, including up to 40 storeys in many locations. Buildings of this scale require steel and concrete construction, two of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions world-wide. The widespread up-zoning proposed in HRM’s HAF response will also encourage the demolition of existing housing stock and send hundreds of thousands of tons of debris to local landfills. 

What WILL HRM’s HAF Proposal do instead?

1.  HRM’s HAF proposal will decrease the supply of affordable housing, destabilize existing neighbourhoods, and displace residents.

HRM’s plan turns land into a commodity, encouraging speculation, turnover, demolition, and “block-busting.” This will lead to the demolition of existing affordable housing, and displace those residents.

2.  HRM’s HAF proposal will undermine principles of good planning and will erode public confidence in the value of community engagement.

HRM’s HAF proposal was developed hastily, with minimal community engagement and was dictated largely by requirements imposed by the federal government. Yet this HAF proposal will override HRM’s Centre Plan, which was developed and approved after a years’-long planning process involving extensive public consultation. 

3.  HRM’s HAF proposal will create a windfall for property developers.

The HAF proposal will give millions of dollars of additional development rights to developers, without any meaningful public benefit in return. 

 What Do We Want Instead?

1.     We call on the Federal Government to allow HRM the time and the flexibility to develop a HAF proposal that makes sense for Halifax, one of the oldest cities in Canada.

2.     We call on HRM to develop a better plan for meeting the short, medium, and long-term need for more housing – a plan that:

a.     prioritizes new housing development that is truly affordable, diverse and climate resilient, especially small-scale, missing middle, and gentle density, as the HAF intends;

b.     encourages retention of existing affordable housing;

c.     prioritizes development of new housing on empty, underutilized, and misused greyfield and brownfield sites. These developable sites alone could accommodate more than double the current population of HRM while avoiding all the destabilizing impacts of the current HAF proposal;

d.     recognizes that investment in public infrastructure, such as transit, sewer and water systems, open spaces, and schools, must happen first in order to ensure that housing is built in the right places and is affordable;

e.     is based on principles of good urban planning, including community input to shape the long-term vision for development;

f.      acknowledges that Halifax already provides a diverse and attractive mix of housing types and densities within a remarkably compact urban core.