HALIFAX—More than four years after it was originally proposed, Halifax regional council voted to approve bylaw amendments to allow the controversial Willow Tree development.

Council held a public hearing Tuesday night where 29 people spoke about the development at the corner of Robie St. and Quinpool Rd., with only four of them in favour.

Those who spoke out against the development cited a number of issues, ranging from concerns over council’s habit of spot rezoning to wind and shadows on the Halifax Common to property values in the neighbourhood surrounding the site. One business owner on Quinpool Rd. said he believed the development would harm his business.

But public opinion isn’t everything, as a few councillors said on Tuesday, and Armco’s proposal for a 25-storey residential building passed by a vote of 10-6, with Mayor Mike Savage, Deputy Mayor Waye Mason and councillors Smith, Austin, Nicoll and Outhit voting no.

The proposal has changed many times over the years, starting as two towers, then morphing into a single 29-storey tower, then to 20 storeys then to the 25 approved Tuesday.

As a condition of those extra five storeys, from 20 to 25, Armco will have to provide public benefit to the municipality, but it has some options.

Ideally, the developer will bury the electrical wires around the site and provide 10 units of affordable housing under a 15-year agreement that will price those units at 60 per cent of market value – currently calculated at about $750.

If it can’t bury the wires, Armco has the option to provide 20 units of affordable housing under those same conditions, provide 10 and $900,000 toward a yet-to-be-established affordable housing fund, or provide $1.8 million toward that fund.

It’s a formula derived partly from Councillor Shawn Cleary – described by Councillor Sam Austin and quoted by many members of the public on Tuesday as “the epitome of ad hocery” – and partly from a meeting between municipal staff and the developer’s representatives at the last council meeting on the proposal.

Austin said he couldn’t support a deal made up “on the back of a napkin.”

Cleary argued that the proposal is a good deal for the municipality, and 10 or 20 units of affordable housing, even if only for 15 years, is better than nothing at a time when the municipality is in dire need of more.

The time limit on the units of affordable housing was a common concern among speakers during the public hearing, and one lamented the use of affordable housing as a bargaining chip for developers to extract more density out of a site.

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The next step for the project is a development agreement between Armco and HRM, at which point the municipality can negotiate some of the specifics of the design like its effect on wind in the area.

Armco will tear down the 10-storey office building and parking garage currently on the site to make way for the new development.

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