Council set to deal with downtown development

Ryan Taplin/Metro Halifax

Pedestrians walk past the former National Film Board building on Barrington Street. Council unanimously approved an initiative to stimulate downtown development yesterday.

• Report addresses vacant lots in urban core
• Council embraces cog metaphor of downtown prosperity affecting entire municipality

Published: July 07, 2010 12:12 a.m.

Last modified: July 07, 2010 12:17 a.m.

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One thing that all 23 of HRM’s councillors can agree on is that there are many metaphors for the downtown.

But whether it be the heart, the root or what have you, a new municipal initiative is set to address issues of vacant lots and stagnant development in the urban core.

Council voted last night to approve Capital Ideas, a report detailing how to bring public and private stakeholders together to stimulate downtown development.

A Strategic Urban Partnership committee will now be formed, and will report back to council in six months.

Lots of vacancy
Currently, there are 51 acres of undeveloped lands in the 250 acre Downtown Halifax Planning Area. Of those vacant lots, a full 62 percent are owned by the government — two per cent are owned federally, 21 per cent provincially, and a full 38 per cent municipally.

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