HRM Forced to End Development Information Meeting Early as Crowd Becomes Disruptive
HALIFAX — Unhappy residents forced an event discussing a new housing project in Halifax to end early.
Halifax Regional Councilor Shawn Cleary and his staff were forced to call the event short due to continued disruptions from the crowd. At one point, Cleary could be seen using a bullhorn to plead with the attendees to voice their concerns in a more orderly manner.
The project is called the West End Mall Future Growth Node and would create over 5,000 new housing units near the Halifax Shopping Centre. In addition to the new housing units, the project includes plans for new streets and an underground bus terminal, as well as new commercial space.
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Councilor Cleary said that he was disappointed by the crowd, considering the desperate need for new homes as the province deals with the ongoing housing crisis.
“I never expected at a public meeting to have an older lady with an actual megaphone, get up on a stage and start jacking up the crowd and asking people to oppose this,” said Cleary.
The event was the first chance that residents had to voice their opinions on the development. On their official website, the city describes these events as an opportunity, “to hear your ideas and vision for the future of the site. Your feedback will help us develop more detailed guiding policies for this site.”
Due to the disruptive way in which the attendees voiced their ‘ideas and vision’, Cleary and his staff felt no choice but to end the event early.
“Our staff came up to us and said, ‘we just can’t continue unfortunately, there’s no way to salvage this’ so we had to shut it down,” said Cleary.
Cleary says that the city will be back, although perhaps in a different format that give people more information up front about what is expected of them during the meeting. He feels that this development could be a huge boon to the city.
“This is probably one of the most unique opportunities Halifax has had in building a community probably since the Second World War,” said Cleary.
April 14, 2023 @ 9:34 am
This article is inaccurate.
The lack of transparency in the process is what had people upset.
The meeting did not have to be shut down at all. People just wanted to learn what was being proposed and there was no presentation at all.
The councillor could have shown a little leadership and welcomed the attendees and made a comment or two before the residents frustrated by the process got upset.
What a lost opportunity by the city to engage and inspire the citizens of the area.
How condescending and rude to refer to a passionate and engaged resident as an old lady with a megaphone.
If this is such an important project then why is it being done in secrecy?
April 15, 2023 @ 10:33 pm
Secrecy? It was an information meeting!
I don’t doubt that the NIMBYs were disruptive given that there was an email circulated in advance designed to shock and appall local homeowners. It helpfully included a template to share on social media to get more people riled up about it.
The irony of this sweeping protest (and if someone brings their own personal megaphone, there’s no calling it anything else) is that the majority of the NOT IN MY BACKYARD voices will have aged out of this mortal coil before this would even affect them.
Taking a moment to channel the Amazing Kreskin…he says the protesters were all white!
April 15, 2023 @ 11:01 am
All these folks who complain about the “lack of transparency” are full of it. All the development application documents are updated when received and posted to the website; planning staff’s detailed reports will be posted in anticipation of any meetings discussing this proposal; there’s a staff email for a lead planner, a clerks email, and councillor email addresses who can receive feedback; there are engagement sessions like this one and later if it proceeds, public hearings.
A small but vocal set of local residents are upset with the process because it’s a process which will most likely lead to the very reasonable conclusion that this project should proceed, and a consequence will be a change in ‘neighborhood character’ which for a small minority of residents will be perceived as the end of the world.
April 15, 2023 @ 1:09 pm
The local residents’ concerns are definitely not “unfounded” as the councillor suggests. The lack of a plan for schools, green space, groceries, utilities, etc to accommodate the influx of a population the size of Truro within the space of one city block are all very valid concerns. I was at the meeting and most people I spoke with were not upset about change in general, nor the prospect of a development, as the councillor suggests… they were upset that the forum didn’t provide opportunity to discuss these issues in any meaningful way.