In February several councilors proposed amendments to the regional plan that would have undermined its ability to direct growth and ensure a sustainable city. On Friday May 16, staff released a report on the implications of these amendments and found that almost all would undermine the goals of the plan.
Our HRM Alliance—a coalition of 52 rural, urban and suburban organizations advocating more sustainable and affordable growth in HRM—fully supports staff’s findings.
“We hope Councilors will maintain a strong Regional Plan in the interests of the whole municipality and resist appeals from individual developers to weaken it,” says Tristan Cleveland, Logistics Coordinator for Our HRM Alliance.
Two of the amendments would immediately open up two urban forests for development that are not supposed to be considered until 2031. “It is vital that Council respect the Urban Reserve designation in the Backlands. The recent Flora study has shed crucial light on the unique and delicate nature of the landscape” says Kathleen Hall of the Backlands Coalition referring to one of these forests.
The staff report finds that one amendment in particular (7c) would allow development of “unlimited scale” outside of the plan’s growth centres. Our HRM Alliance affirms that strong rules are needed to make the growth centres work.
“Growth centres, such as Tantallon or Downtown Dartmouth are there to save us money. When developers are allowed to build anywhere, the rest of us pay for the pipes, roads, schools, policing, and plowing,” says Geoff Leboutillier of the St. Margaret’s Bay Stewardship Association. “Unless we want the burden of more taxes every year, we had better start better using the infrastructure we already have.”
On Tuesday May 20 Council will address the proposed amendments. Our HRM Alliance urges Councilors to reject the amendments and send the Regional Plan to public hearings in its current form.
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