Council Approves 12-Storey Towers Next To Lake Banook In Dartmouth
DARTMOUTH — Harbour East Community Council has shirked a staff recommendation and given the go-ahead to a 12-storey tower development on the shores of Lake Banook.
The Twin Lakes development will see two towers built on a swath of property near Graham’s Corner, adjacent to Alderney Elementary School.
The complex will house retail space on its ground floor, 174 units of housing, and more than 200 spaces of underground parking.
Although city staff recommended against the project, all four members of Harbour East Community Council gave it their blessing last night, citing project’s widespread community support and the need more housing in the HRM
The Twin Lakes development has been in the works for close to two decades. Originally, developers asked to build a single tower on the property.
At the time, the council approved that request over the objections of city staff, who said the project was too big and didn’t fit in with the surrounding neighbourhood.
The new incarnation of the project has a smaller footprint than the original, but staff expressed the same concerns about the two large towers the developer proposed.
City planner Jamy-Ellen Klenavic explained to the council that the area around the property is largely two-storey buildings and that the proposed project doesn’t fit with the scale of the neighbourhood.
She said the “height, bulk, scale, and exterior design” of the tower were all issues.
The property is large, she said, and the developer could fit just as many units into smaller buildings that wouldn’t loom so large over their neighbours.
Mitch Dickey, a consultant representing the developers, argued the project will create desperately needed housing in the area. He also pointed out that the community appears to be largely in support of the project.
Correspondence the city received about the development was largely positive.
Dickey said there are lots of older folks in the area looking to downsize and that they want to be able to stay in their own neighbourhood when they do.
Close to 200 units, centrally located near a school, grocery store, park, and transit give them an ideal place to do that.
“We see most of the market for this project as being those already living in the central Dartmouth area, still in their homes and looking to downsize and stay in their neighbourhood,” he said.
He said many have already expressed interest in moving to Twin Lakes. When they do, he argued, the effects will “trickle-down” into the housing market as their single-family homes open up to new buyers.
Shelley Bridges is one of those people. She and her partner Chuck spoke at the public hearing in favour of the project.
“I think we can all agree there’s a housing crisis in HRM,” Bridges said.
She said retirees looking to downsize “for the most part we want to stay within our Dartmouth community” and that the Twin Lakes development will give them an opportunity to do that.
“There’s a great demand for exactly this kind of development,” Bridges said.
Coun. Becky Kent agreed. She said it’s important to consider the development in the context of the current housing market in the HRM.
“I think we cannot neglect to talk very firmly around the need for housing. We are in unprecedented times,” she said.
Kent also addressed staff concerns about the scale of the proposed development, pointing out that a 16-story hotel is being built a stone’s throw away.
“I think that horse is out of the barn around height,” she said.
Coun. Sam Austin agreed, saying the need for housing outweighs smaller concerns about the scale of the building.
“This is a good site for development. It’s in the core, it’s identified as a spot in the Centre Plan that we want to see growth in. It has access to transit, good access to service, there’s a park, a school, a grocery store. This is a good spot,” he said.
Austin said the area is “very much in flux,” with a variety of different developments in place or going up, so “pinning down what is compatible is difficult.”
He pointed out that if the council rejected the new design the developers would go back to the old, single tower design.
“I think the practicality here is were going to get a much better-designed project [this way],” he said.
Trevor Nichols is a staff writer with Huddle in Halifax. Send him an e-mail with your story suggestions: [email protected].