My Dream Is A Halifax Awash With 50-Storey Skyscrapers
The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. This week, Halifax staff writer Trevor Nichols shares his thoughts on how skyscrapers can help alleviate the housing crisis. Huddle editor Mark Leger will return next week.
Not long ago, the old Dartmouth post office went up for sale. It’s a charming brick building, with a rich history, perched on a big property in downtown Dartmouth.
It was advertised as a prime development opportunity and lots of Dartmouth residents were worried about the building’s future. But when a developer shelled out close to $6-million for the property, I was stoked. That meant one more tall tower was on the table in our city.
Halifax is in the middle of a housing crisis. We need to build so many more homes in this city, and big — I’m talking really big — towers are the only reasonable way to do it.
If I had my way, this city would be awash with 50-storey skyscrapers.
I don’t love the idea of sacrificing heritage buildings for big glass rectangles. I don’t like that big towers impose on people’s views and access to sunshine. But we can’t have a thriving, growing city and expect that new growth won’t change things, especially our skyline.
According to the CHMC, 2,276 new homes were built in Halifax in 2020. Meanwhile, the city’s population grew by 9,015 people.
That’s 6,739 more new people than new homes. In just one year.
We can probably expect similar numbers in the years to come. So where are all these people going to live?
The housing problems in Halifax stem from more than just a supply shortage. But not having enough homes for people to live in makes everything so much worse.
Supply shortages drive up home prices, pushing would-be buyers into the rental market. They snap up apartments and bottom-out vacancy rates in the process.
With no place to move, renters are at the mercy of their landlords. We’ve seen how badly that’s gone. It’s all a big ‘ol spiral, and the very first step to straightening it out is building thousands of new homes.
Developers are willing to put up big buildings (I just wrote about the latest tower coming soon to King’s Wharf) but they’re constantly bumping up against one big hurdle: height.
For the most part, the city’s building codes only allow new buildings to be about 30 storeys tall, even in high-density areas. It’s why you see so many proposals for 28-, 29-, and 30-storey buildings in Halifax. That’s developers pushing up against height restrictions.
That new King’s Wharf tower? 27 storeys. The three skyscrapers Manga Hotels wants to build overlooking Halifax Harbour? All about 30 storeys.
Why are we making developers do this?
Halifax is one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada. But we can’t keep that up unless we do what all the other big cities do and start building real skyscrapers.
New York is one of the most desirable places to live in the world. It didn’t get there by worrying about “building to the scale of the neighbourhood” or casting shadows on a few back yards.
That city’s throwing up towers so high that it’s too dangerous for occupants to even open their windows. But in Halifax, developers are pulling themselves into pretzels trying to design buildings that squeak in under the city’s height limits.
City councillors talk about all the ways their hands are tied when it comes to creating more affordable housing in Halifax.
But simply creating more housing would do so much to help fix this problem. And you know a great place to put it? On the 31st to 50th floor of Halifax’s newest highrise.
Council has the power to change the city’s zoning laws to allow taller buildings. The city has spent a long time developing comprehensive new zoning bylaws, but sticking to the height limits in today’s Centre Plan will hold us back.
We do need guardrails to keep bad projects and selfish developers in check.
The province needs to give Halifax the power to force developers to include affordable units in their developments. They should have to create public art and green spaces and new city infrastructure as part of their projects.
But, for the love of all that’s holy, let them build as high as they freggin want.
I want every Haligonian to have a safe, dry, private place to lay their head. I want renters to have better options, so they’re not under the thumb of greedy landlords. I want middle-income families to actually be able to afford a house in this city.
There are a lot of hurdles to clear before we can address all these problems. But not fixing the core housing shortage will be like trying to run the race in crocs.
We’ve got a line of developers dangling Nikes in front of us. Let’s get out of our own way and lace-up.
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