New Planning Strategy To Significantly Increase Population In Downtown Dartmouth – Halifax

While cranes dominate Halifax's skyline in recent years, Dartmouth is "moving" in population and development, according to Dartmouth Center Coun. Sam Austin.

"In addition to King's Wharf, there have not been many projects, and if you look at the population figures, they have remained stable," said Austin.

Halifax has had a population increase above the national average in recent years. According to a June 2018 report by the Halifax Partnership, the city has experienced population growth of 1.6% over the past two years. The national growth rate is 1.2%.

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The goal of the City Planning Department is to bring downtown Dartmouth into a growing area.

To move this ball out of the population, the goal is to deploy a new planning strategy.

"We would like to see an increase in the population ultimately, which will help improve businesses and so on located in downtown Dartmouth. Part of the largest regional center and ultimate growth in Halifax is incremental growth because of the economic progress and the improvements that can be made, "said Eric Lucic, Regional Planning Manager for the municipality.

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Many development proposals in Halifax have met with public resistance, but the new planning strategy for downtown Dartmouth is not focused on height restrictions.

Instead, development aims to be guided by a measure called floor area ratio.

"The floor area ratio is a measure by which you look at the size of your property and the heights of your building. This is directly related to the size of your property, so how high you can go between really playing with respect. how big your property is, "said Lucic.

According to Lucic, the current plan allows developers to negotiate heights ranging from 15 to 30 floors.

Although the new plan does not include the necessary height restrictions, Lucic says that he will set a standard to avoid excessive heights.

"In the central area where they want to see growth, they have badigned a floor-to-floor ratio objective, a density goal, to each lot. Thus, people have some freedom to decide the best solution to enlarge it, and then for areas closer to established neighborhoods, there is still a height limit, "said Austin.