Halifax has granted ‘shocking’ number of demolition permits, group says
Global News
A volunteer group that wants a better balance between developers and residents created a map to highlight the number of active demolition permits in Halifax.
Halifax is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, so it’s no surprise there’s a lot of construction around town. But it’s what’s coming down — not what’s going up — that has one group concerned.
Development Options Halifax is a volunteer group of citizens who say they want to see a better balance between the interest of developers and the municipality’s residents. Members say there are too many demolitions happening across the city, so they created a map to illustrate the issue.
“I thought, ‘Whoa, where are we going with this? Where is the city headed?” said map developer William Breckenridge. “We want it to be a conversation starter: How do we look at city growth?”
The map shows all the demolition permits issued from January 2020 to June 2022. Breckenridge said the list includes both partial and full demolitions, because the municipality does not distinguish between the two.
Regardless, he said the number of permits issued is “shocking.”
“We’re actually in a time where we need more units right away,” Breckenridge said. “In four months, you can renovate a building, instead of waiting two years for the permits for everything else that the province has had to go and make a special council about because it’s taking too long for permits to go through.”
He said the city seems to be going through another “mass tear down,” similar to 60 years ago when the city demolished residential buildings to make way for the Cogswell interchange.
“We shouldn’t have torn down 12-plus blocks of the city, and now we’re having to rebuild it all. Imagine if all that was already there? … We’re not doing things in a sensible, logical manner.”