Housing a concern for many at Halifax Centre Plan workshop

Housing was a popular concern among participants at a workshop on the Halifax Regional Municipality’s Centre Plan Wednesday evening.

“We need affordable housing on the peninsula and in downtown Dartmouth. It’s a huge issue right now. It’s really unaffordable to live in the area, and a lot of students and younger people need access to that,” said Ross Grant, one of about 100 people who attended.

The event, which started at 6 p.m. at the Halifax Forum, is the final of eight workshops held this month in Halifax and Dartmouth.

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The Centre Plan is a compass (of sorts) being developed to guide future development in the municipality’s regional centre. Themes include land use and design, mobility, public spaces and places, culture and heritage, housing, sustainability, and jobs and economic development.

The first meeting was held in March. The idea is to replace decades-old existing plans that is said to no longer adequately represent residents’ desires.

“So we’re really dealing with all of the impacts of land-use on our city and our quality of life,” said Jacob Ritchie, urban design program manager for the municipal government.

Participants worked in groups and wrote ideas for the plan on supplied sheets of paper.

Heather Johannesen said she wants to see more tiny homes in the region.

“If you’re in university, you can build it in mom and dad’s backyard, and you’ve got your own little place to live. And then when grandma’s too old to live in her own house, she can move into it,” she said.

While the future was a major discussion, so was the present.

A north end car dealership’s plans to demolish 25 homes to expand a parking lot was a concern for many who attended.

“So that’s just an example of where we have existing zoning that’s been in place for a long time that allows for that use but is in fact, really, I think, disrupting the fabric of the neighbourhood and the direction residents would like to see that neighbourhood develop,” said Halifax Peninsula North Councillor Jennifer Watts.

Another series of workshops is planned for June to fine-tune some of the ideas generated at May’s workshops.

Feedback is also being collected via the Centre Plan’s website, which also contains more information about the project.