First Halifax Centre Plan meeting an opportunity to provide feedback

More than 100 people attended the first public consultation meeting on the development of a plan for the future of Halifax’s regional centre Monday evening.

“What we think this means is that people will have clarity,” said Jacob Ritchie, urban design program manager for the Halifax Regional Municipality.

The event ran between 6 and 9 p.m. at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth.

The Centre Plan has seven themes: land use and design, mobility, public spaces and places, culture and heritage, housing, sustainability, and jobs and economic development.

The communities which constitute the centre are urban: the Halifax peninsula and mainly the area of Dartmouth surrounded by Halifax Harbour and Highway 111.

“I think a lot of people love living in the regional centre. They find that they’re close to the amenities they want to be close to, they might be close to their jobs or close to the great parks, and I think we want to really make sure that isn’t something that people feel infringed upon,” said Ritchie, adding that the aim is to make sure people new to the area have access to the same things.

He also noted that some of the current plans were carried over from before Halifax was amalgamated; the goal is to develop a comprehensive version coherent with today’s society.

Those who attended could write ideas on sticky notes and then place them on relevant boards.

“My concern is land-use bylaws, and that needs to be upfront as part and parcel of this whole process, and it needs to be explained to the public,” Shaun Bartone said.

1:46 Halifax Regional Municipality to hold public event to gather ideas for The Centre Plan

“We have to really look at people’s lives as a whole and, you know, not just about having affordable housing, but affordable communities where people can work, shop, open up businesses,” Paige Farah said.

Matthew Jarsky, another attendee, said there were easy improvements to be made.

“You can always plant trees. It’s literally low-hanging fruit,” he said.

The feedback gathered, including at future meetings and online, will go into shaping a draft plan this fall. A final version is expected to be complete in December.