The federal government announced that it’s allocated millions to a former military site in Dartmouth for housing. The move comes as a surprise to the province, and councillors with the Halifax Regional Municipality are also left with questions.
Shannon Park has stood empty since 2003. In 2014, the Canada Lands Company purchased it. By 2017, all of the buildings on the property had been demolished.
It was also previously part of a bid to get the CFL to Halifax.
Fourteen months ago, the site was approved for the building of additional housing units.
According to an HRM staff report, the plan for the site includes:
- 23 new city blocks
- 3,000 dwelling units
- around 145,000 square feet of commercial space
- around 7.5 acres of public parkland, including a waterfront park
- both on- and off-street active transportation trails and pathways
- new public streets, municipal services such as water and sewer, and a transit hub.
The site also comes with allocation for pallet homes, in which the province said on Thursday that they had “no documentation” from the federal government on plans to build in the former Department of National Defence area.
Unlike housing projects, pallet shelters would run through the province, with spokesperson Christina Deveau for the department of Community Services telling Global News, “At this time, we have no further information on this initiative.”
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The Federal Minster of Housing, Sean Fraser, said that they’ve had talks with the province “in passing” on the site before boasting plans to send a map to provinces regarding sites the federal government intends to build on.
District 6 councillor Tony Mancini is left with questions about community engagement and the placement, given its proximity to school and nearby residential homes.
“Here we are talking about Dartmouth again, doing way more than any other part of the municipality when it comes to homelessness,” he said an interview with Global News on Monday.
“It’s frustrating.”
Mancini says Dartmouth, like other parts of the city, is dealing with an increasing amount of homelessness, and he’s hoping that a plan can accommodate the need.
He said that Dartmouth already carries a large amount of services, unlike other parts of the municipality.
“It’s very frustrating for residents of Dartmouth that here we are again talking about homelessness and the Dartmouth side taking care of it,” he explained.
“Let’s talk about it, and if there’s better alternatives, so be it, but if not how to we make sure it’s safe for everybody involved.”
Fraser told Global News that they “certainly” plan on hosting community engagement on the project, but followed with the need to build the project quickly.
He said building modular homes will allow the federal government to build homes quicker in the area as the region continues to deal with a housing crunch.
Global News reached out to the developer, Canada Lands, who did not respond to our request for comment.
— with files from Global News’ Alex Cooke
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