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HALIFAX, N.S. —

Every week, SALT staff will try to answer your questions about your neighbourhood. Have a question? Contact us at salt@saltwire.com or Instagram at @saltwirenetwork

The Centre Plan is getting in the way of some big plans for the north end of Oxford Street.

Canada Lands Company (CLC), the Crown corporation that handles real estate for the federal government, created a redevelopment concept for the property at the corner of Oxford Street and Bayers Road — the former site of the RCMP.

The plan

After public consultation, CLC landed on a concept last year for up to 500 residential units in five buildings, ranging from four to 25 storeys in height.

It plans to sell the site to a developer to see the project through after completing its master plan and getting the site ready. CLC recently brought out the wrecking ball to start knocking out the former RCMP building to make way for the new proposal.

But the first half of the Centre Plan — the set of land-use planning documents approved by council in the fall after years of delays — sets the height for the lot at 20 metres. That’s only about six storeys.

“It’s not lining up with what the current zoning, which was just recently approved by council for that site, would allow. The big difference is height,” municipal planner Ben Sivak said of the Canada Lands concept.

Sivak said there is a special process baked into the Centre Plan for big sites like this one, those over one hectare, but it would only give the developers another four metres in height ( equal to about one storey.)

Canada Lands unsuccessfully argued in favour of more rights on the site during the Centre Plan process in the fall. According to the minutes, the argument was a special process allowing some flexibility for large sites is “burdensome” and doesn’t provide enough flexibility.

“Council ultimately went with the corridor zone that currently applies,” Sivak said.

“Having said that, we are going through the Package B process and I would expect Canada Lands again to maybe ask for some changes.”

A possible future for the land at Oxford and Bayers? – Canada Lands

What's next

Chris Millier, Canada Lands’ senior director of real estate in Atlantic Canada, said the company has no plans to try to loosen the development rights on the property before selling it off.

“Our work with respect to design principles and guidelines remains intact,” he said.

“Our current work is to prepare the site so that it can be put on the market and a purchaser be successful in acquiring and then have that purchaser move through the next steps with the city.”

Millier said the detailed design and then the application to the municipal planning department is up to the purchaser.

“CLC on a site like this, where those approvals are typically done on a site by site basis, wouldn’t be doing that,” he said.

Millier said he hopes the property will be on the market by this summer.

Coun. Lindell Smith, who represents the area, said, when something is built there, people in the neighbourhood want to see better pedestrian infrastructure. There’s no sidewalk on Oxford Street or Bayers Road bordering the property, but there’s a school nearby.

“Why are we not improving it for pedestrians but adding this huge development who are probably going to have families move in because of its location and because it’s so close to a school?" Lindell Smith

Smith said he also wanted to see affordable housing included in the Canada Lands concept.

The concept says, “opportunities will be sought to provide a portion of residential units as affordable or below-market housing.”

Zane Woodford is a Halifax-based report with SaltWire.com

zane.woodford@saltwire.com

Every week , SALT staff will try to answer your questions about your neighbourhood. Have a question? Contact us at salt@saltwire.com or Instagram at @saltwirenetwork

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