HALIFAX—After municipal officials made a new deal with the developer, Halifax regional council voted Tuesday to send the controversial Willow Tree development proposal to another public hearing.

The proposed 25-storey development to replace the 10-storey office building at the corner of Quinpool Rd. and Robie St. has taken many forms and heights in the four years since George Armoyan’s development company, Armco, first pitched it as a pair of towers back in 2014.

The proposal morphed into a single 29-storey tower that was approved by one council, before a newly elected council reversed that decision, chopping the proposal down to planning staff’s recommended maximum of 20 storeys.

In March, the project went to a public hearing at 20 storeys with the underlying context that the developer actually wanted 25 storeys. Most people who spoke at the hearing opposed the building at 20 or 25 storeys, and council voted to consider it at 25, with some conditions.

The conditions were wider sidewalks around the building, 10 units of affordable housing through an agreement with Housing Nova Scotia, and the burying of electrical and communication wires around the building.

On Tuesday, the proposal came back to council for the first reading of a new set of bylaw amendments to allow the project.

But the report to council said Armco couldn’t do the underground wiring: it would be expensive and the developer felt there were “inequities” involved with other landowners benefiting from its spending.

Council set out to put a dollar value on the underground wiring to seek a dollar figure or a number of affordable housing units that would match the cost of what it asked for originally.

After more than an hour of debate and amendments being tabled and withdrawn, council deferred the motion and took a break. CAO Jacques Dubé rushed off with municipal solicitor John Traves, planners Carl Purvis and Kelly Denty, and Armco representative Adam McLean to hash out a new deal.

After the break, council dealt with other business, and got back to the Willow Tree debate before its dinner break, presented with an amended motion that was passed 13-3.

That motion gives Armco four options. The first is what council asked for: buried wiring and 10 units of affordable housing for 15 years.

The other three options are designed to make sure the municipality still gets something if the undergrounding isn’t feasible.

Armco can provide 20 units of affordable housing for 15 years, it can provide 10 units and $900,000 towards a yet-to-be-established affordable housing fund, or it can provide $1.8 million to the fund.

“This is the best solution going forward to get the deal done today, to get council’s endorsement and go to a public hearing,” Dubé said after the options were presented to councillors.

McLean, with Armco, said after the decision that the developer would prefer to have underground wiring from a project perspective, but he’s not sure it will make sense.

“It’s just a better streetscape to have the power lines underground,” he said. “So we’d like to do it, but really it’s going to be, can we make something work with the other landowners in the area.”

McLean called the meeting with Dubé and others a “collaborative” process, and said he was happy to have options on the affordable housing side as well, between actual units and cash in lieu.

“And that’s more recognizing that affordable housing right now is done through the province,” he said. “So if there are any complications with trying to get an agreement done with the province on affordable housing, then there’s an option for the municipality to still get the value we’re agreeing to in another fashion.”

If Armco opts for the units, and the province signs an agreement, the developer will have to rent those units for $750 a month, calculated as 60 per cent of market rent in Halifax, for 15 years. The units would have to have at least two bedrooms and the rent includes heat, electricity and hot water.

The councillor for the area, Lindell Smith, who along with Deputy Mayor Waye Mason and Coun. Sam Austin was one of three votes against the proposal, wasn’t convinced those units would materialize.

“It’s hard for me to support this. I am, as you know, a huge advocate for affordable housing,” Smith said during the debate. “But I just don’t feel we’re really working with actual possibilities here, rather than we’re just putting words on paper, hoping the developer’s going to do it.”

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The project now goes to another public hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

McLean said he expects it will be similar to the last hearing, but the proposal has changed.

“I think, as long as we can stand there and explain that to the community, they should understand that what they have now is better than where this started, and they were part of that,” he said.

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