Sorry folks, but I have already given up on this deal.
Westwood is a business, and as such their main purpose is to make money. Incorporating heritage structures into their project, especially with all the constraints placed on them by HRMxD and the NIMBY groups, will not make as much money as just leveling it all and putting up the piece-of-crap that they are going to build. Combine this with the fact that they apparently just don't care about Halifax's history or built heritage or whatever you want to call it, and there's no hope in hell that the Maritime Life building (or façade) will be saved. Since the city or province don't have any rules or processes in place to steer developers towards saving structures like these, they have free rein to do whatever makes the easiest money for them - simple as that.
The current plans have been in place for years and everything is going to plan. The demolition machine is swiftly moving along and I can't see any way that it would change now, especially after some 130-year-old Victorian structures have already been leveled. At this point in time its a done deal and Chedrawe is now simply in image-saving mode:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novasco...says-developer
Quote:
“We have a commitment to this community, so we’ve taken extra steps to ensure this is worthwhile. We widened the sidewalks all the way around by 50 per cent. We are putting in street trees and more lighting. We are also burying overhead wiring at our cost,” he said.
“This is all meant to enhance the development, but more importantly, to directly benefit the public.”
|
Look at all he's doing for us... what a great guy...
From the other side of things, the city seems too timid to try to change or improve things now. From the sounds of things, their idea is that HRMxD and the Centre Plan is like a rulebook that they have made, so now they can put their feet up and not have to think about it for another 50 years, when they are no longer there. Heaven forbid that the current HRMxD isn't perfect and may have to be continually tweaked rather than set in stone and forgotten about. Really, this type of planning guideline should be fluid - it should be continually changed and improved as time goes on, with the goal of making Halifax the best Halifax that it can be - but from Waye's comments outlined by Drybrain in the post above, it looks like this is not even on the table.
So... expect more crap like this in the future:
- Timid politicians who are afraid of upsetting the development community.
- Developers who don't give a crap about Halifax's history or culture, and are just looking for the next low-hanging fruit to pluck and expand their bank accounts.
- An apathetic public who are afraid that if they don't let developers have their own way that they will take all their money and go away - we must be careful to not expect high quality building projects so as not to offend them.
- NIMBYs who don't have the ability to remove the blinders and see anything further than their own narrow point of view.
Stick a fork in it folks, this one's done.
