HALIFAX—The developer says his next proposal will be 100 per cent affordable, but despite calls from residents, a development on the former Ben’s Bakery site will go ahead without any affordable rental units.

After a public hearing Tuesday night, Halifax regional council voted unanimously in favour of bylaw amendments to allow the project, proposed by Danny Chedrawe’s Westwood Developments. Once complete, it will occupy more than 110,000 square feet over 24 city lots, fronting on Quinpool Rd., Pepperell St., Shirley St. and Preston St.

The largest part of the project is a 10-storey building on Quinpool Rd., with a total of 93 units, 20,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor facing Quinpool, and nine townhouse-style condo units on the ground floor facing Pepperell St.

Across Pepperell in the back, Westwood has proposed a six-storey residential building to be used as the 65-to-70-unit Berkeley Seniors Residence. Beside that building, along Pepperell and Preston St. and then behind it on Shirley St., Westwood plans another 32 townhouse units.

The site used to be Ben’s Bakery, with three main buildings, including a baking facility, retail outlet and warehouse, as well as a silo building. Westwood bought the property when the bakery closed down in 2015, and made an application for the development in 2016 after holding two of its own public meetings.

“I would appeal to other developers to use similar processes that engage the community in talking about what they really want to see,” area Councillor Waye Mason said during Tuesday’s public hearing, “Because it makes our life easier and it makes the neighbourhood a lot less afraid of developments coming.”

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Mason said he heard from panicked residents as soon as the property went up for sale in July 2015, and the community held its own meeting before Chedrawe even bought the property. Mason said he worked with Chedrawe to develop the process he used.

“Did everybody get what they wanted? No, they didn’t, but most of the neighbours feel like they saw how we landed where we are,” he said.

Nine people spoke at the public hearing Tuesday night — which isn’t many for an area that has seen hours-long public hearings with dozens of speakers.

There was, however, a consistent thread in their comments.

Vincent Calderhead, a lawyer who lives near the Ben’s Bakery site, told council he’d like to see the municipality pause the proposal and work with the developer to make 20 per cent of the units affordable in perpetuity.

“People in low-income situations are in a crisis when it comes to being able to afford housing,” he told councillors.

Calderhead suggested council use density bonusing — the practice of trading extra density for public benefit — to compel Chedrawe to create the affordable units.

Claire McNeil, another nearby resident, echoed Calderhead’s comments, saying she finds the project to be attractive and suitable for the area, but she was surprised no affordable housing was proposed.

“I would’ve thought that council — at this point in time, 2018, given what’s going on in Halifax — would want to include that as part of your criteria for considering any major residential development, in terms of improving the supply of adequate affordable housing, because we know that social housing isn’t doing the job,” McNeil said.

The problem is the municipality’s density bonusing formula isn’t finalized yet, and won’t be until the Centre Plan — the planning document designed to guide growth in urban Halifax for the next decade — is adopted. The current formula has also been criticized for its potential to actually make housing less affordable.

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At any rate, density bonusing isn’t easily applied in this situation.

The site was zoned exclusively for a bakery; it was in fact, until the vote Tuesday night, the municipality’s only bakery zone. Municipal planning documents contemplated the day that the bakery closed, when council would create a site-specific policy to allow for redevelopment.

That means there’s no existing zoning or regulations, meaning there’s no pre-bonus density or height with which to create density bonusing.

The proposal would be ripe for the creation of affordable housing using inclusionary zoning — the practice of requiring affordable housing in any development over a certain size. But as Star Metro reported in its affordable housing series earlier this year, the Nova Scotia government won’t allow the municipality to create inclusionary zoning policies.

Chedrawe told council he agreed with the speakers that affordable housing was badly needed in Halifax.

“Tonight, council has heard loud and clear that we’re getting to a crisis level in affordable housing in this city, and I’m 100 per cent behind the people that spoke tonight,” Chedrawe said during his closing remarks to council.

He suggested that some of the townhouse units in the development are a form of affordable housing because they provide an opportunity to own a home in the south end for about $500,000 or less.

“Unfortunately on this site, we’re not going to have affordable housing rentals, but the next project that’s coming in front of this council in a short while, we’re not looking for density bonusing, we’ll have an affordable housing project,” Chedrawe vowed.

“Not for 20 per cent. A hundred per cent of that building will be an affordable project with no government money. We’re gonna do it. The private sector is gonna come up and it’s gonna deal with this affordable housing crisis we have in this city and Westwood’s gonna lead the way, and that will be in our next project that will be coming to council.”

It’s unclear how Chedrawe would make the math work on such a project, but Councillor Lindell Smith said he’d hold him to it.

“Because you said it on record, Danny, I’m holding you to the fire for that next development,” he said.

This development still has one more hoop to get through before Chedrawe can break ground.

While Tuesday night’s public hearing was technically a joint hearing for both policy amendments (which council approved) and a development agreement, the municipality’s Halifax and West community council still has to approve the development agreement.

That will happen at a future meeting. The next one is scheduled for Dec. 12.

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