A development that will bring thousands of units and people to land behind Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax is well underway, but a vote on whether to allow additional units has yet to happen. “HRM has changed some of their planning requirements through the Housing Accelerator Fund to allow for some additional height to increase density in response to the housing crisis,” Jim Mullan, senior vice president of construction and development at Southwest Properties, told CTV News Atlantic at an open house last week. Adding between two and four additional storeys to some buildings – with a 20-storey maximum – is estimated to add about 1,000 units, or about 2,250 people, according to the municipality. That would bring the new total to about 3,500 units, or 7,875 people who would be living at the Seton Ridge development, but the developer says the market will dictate final numbers. The open house was held to address the proposed amendments to the agreement, and adding more people on heavily used roads was one of the concerns raised. “Primarily, my immediate concerns would be the traffic,” Glen MacKenzie said. “I don’t know if the Bedford Highway and Lacewood are going to be equipped to handle this kind of extra volume, particularly in the morning and rush hour traffic.” The developer says noise and traffic are common concerns with new builds. As for traffic, Southwest Properties CEO Ben Young said in an interview this will be a first-of-its-kind project for Halifax, being truly walkable, allowing folks to get to coffee shops, restaurants or grocery stores. But when people do need to leave the area, he says transit plans are in place to bring buses through the subdivision to encourage people to take the bus. “You’re always going to have more people on the road when you build something, but this one is certainly a template that will help minimize the amount of traffic based on the number of people that are moving in there. “I think we have as good of a game plan as any project that the city has ever seen with trying to sort of contain traffic and still add much-needed housing for the city.” Dean MacDougall, acting principal planner for the municipality, said this isn’t above-the-norm in terms of the proposed development scale. “No, I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I mean, historically, perhaps, but as of late, there have been several developments of this size.” A municipal survey is due by Friday, then MacDougall says a vote on the additional units is expected to come to community council early next year, after a staff report is created. Young says the entirety of the residential project is expected to be finished within eight-to-11 years. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
