HALIFAX—A municipal committee overseeing downtown development has approved a proposal for a long-vacant site on Hollis Street despite concerns from municipal staff that the design contravened too many municipal planning rules.

The design review committee approved the proposal from United Gulf Developments, owned by Navid Saberi, at its meeting on Thursday evening. The lot, known as the Texpark site, is located in the block between Granville, Sackville and Hollis streets, across from the Maple on Hollis and next to the MetroPark parking garage.

This is the latest in a line of United Gulf’s proposals for the site dating back more than a decade. The developer received council approval for two 27-storey towers on the site, known as the Twisted Sisters in 2006. Those towers were never built and United Gulf came back to council with a bolder plan in 2012. It proposed two 48-storey towers, dubbed Skye Halifax. They would’ve been the city’s tallest buildings by far, flying in the face of the same design rules in place for the area now. The newly-elected council voted the project down.

The latest proposal is still called Skye Halifax, but it’s less than half as tall. Its two towers would rise 21 storeys — 66 metres. The building would house more than 400 residential units, 100 hotel units, 25,000 square feet of retail space and nearly 300 parking spaces spread over four levels of indoor parking.

Municipal planner Paul Sampson told the committee that among a number of other issues, the building’s two towers are too big and too close together.

“The south tower is excessively wide,” Sampson said. “There’s no public benefit that’s clear to us.”

Peter Clewes of Toronto-based firm architectsAlliance — who also designed the controversial Château Laurier extension in Ottawa — told the committee that the wider towers allowed for a public cut-through between Granville and Hollis streets.

The committee felt the benefit of the public space outweighed the violations of planning rules and voted down the staff recommendation. Instead, it passed a motion with several conditions for approval, including burying the electrical and communication wiring surrounding the site and ensuring that the cut-through area adheres to strict accessibility standards.

Saberi told reporters he plans to start construction in January 2021 after finishing another project. The residential units in the building will be a mix of apartments and condominiums, he said, and he’s in the process of securing an operator for the hotel.

Committee chair Colin Duggan and committee member Gregory MacNeil were the only votes in favour of the staff recommendation against the proposal.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the committee turned down a proposal from Kassner Goodspeed Architects for a five-storey mixed-use building on Barrington Street near the Superstore. That proposal, including 26 residential units and 1,500 square feet of commercial space, would’ve meant the demolition of three buildings that aren’t registered heritage properties, but have historic value.

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