Halifax looks at three possible emergency exits for subdivision where wildfire began

Exactly six months after a major wildfire began in an Upper Tantallon subdivision, Halifax will look at three options to create an emergency exit that residents have long called for.

A report coming to regional council Tuesday recommends that council direct staff to move ahead with the planning, design and engagement needed to build an emergency connection to Highway 103 from the Westwood Hills subdivision. 

Dustin O'Leary, president of the Westwood Hills Residents' Association, said while people are "relieved" to finally see some details, it should not have taken this long.

"That's embarrassing and it's not OK. It shouldn't be this way," O'Leary said Friday.

The fire began on May 28 and destroyed 150 homes in Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains. Hundreds of people were caught in long lines of traffic in the area, with some people driving through smoke and walls of flame.

Although Westwood technically has the minimum two access points needed to meet Halifax's latest design guidelines, the report said they are very close to one another on Hammonds Plains Road which could create bottlenecks and delays.

Staff came up with three options based on various factors including topography, property ownership and connection length. They include a 500 metre-long road, one that is 950 metres further west, and a third one-kilometre option.

However, staff still have to do the design and costing of the exits, which O'Leary said will take more valuable time. He said construction must start as early as possible next spring.

"To think that we would be approaching conceivably the one-year anniversary of this fire without having a new egress built is just disturbing," O'Leary said.

Despite the challenging hilly and heavily wooded terrain in the area, the report said it appears to be "physically feasible" to develop a roadway.

The staff report said there are more than 20 private landowners holding property between Westwood and Highway 103. HRM installed two emergency roads out of other nearby subdivisions soon after the fire, Haliburton Hills and Highland Park, because they were built on municipal land.

Although Nova Scotia Power owns a network of service roads linked to dams and lakes between the subdivision and highway, the report said they would require "significant upgrades" to allow for egress. They would also be longer, ranging from 1.6 kilometres to four kilometres.

Council asked for the report back in June, after a motion from area councillor Pam Lovelace.

Lovelace agreed that having designs and estimates for the three route options now would have been ideal, as "this community, quite frankly, has waited long enough."