At a press conference on Tuesday Aug. 6, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr announced the Carr Farm development would be one of four new designated Special Planning Areas (SPAs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new SPA\u2019s will be able to support development of more than 23,000 residential units and 380 long-term care rooms, Lohr said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is a tremendous need for housing in Halifax and surrounding areas,\u201d said Lohr. \u201cWe are a significant way through the planning and development process with many of our initial special planning areas, and we are seeing the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDesignation is removing red tape and speeding up development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the press conference with media in the room and on zoom, including The Laker News, Lohr mentioned that there have been some infrastructure issues with the development along Fall River Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome of the concerns from the community have been addressed so we’re confident that it can go ahead,\u201d said Lohr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the concerns from the community, including a community group and those on a Facebook page Plan Fall River, was the idea of having treated effluent discharged into Lake Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lohr was asked further on why the development needed to be listed as part of an SPA, since it was approved by North West Community County already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe process is that the executive panel of which Vicki Elliott-Lopez is the chair, brings those forward to recommend to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elliott-Lopez explained it a bit further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis one in particular it had been approved at a larger density, so in order to address the infrastructure issues, they’re going to have to go back to the beginning and redesign it at a slightly lower density,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat this will allow them to do is to provide assurances that it will still go ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe minister takes the place of council, as you know, so they won’t have to go back through the same processes again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The previous approved development saw close to 500 units to be built plus the 144 long-term care beds. That will now be reduced to 316 plus the 144 long-term facility beds in a separate building on site. It will also have its own on-site septic system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”148″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elliott-Lopez said the developer took the initiative to go back to the drawing board on the development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe developer themselves determined that,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were some community concerns about the effluent going into the into the lake, despite the fact that it was going to be treated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn order to address those community concerns, he’s gone back and there will be on site septic instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut the larger density wouldn’t allow for that, so the developers gone back to redesign according to that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lohr was asked by The Laker News why the province didn\u2019t ask the developer to keep the treated effluent in an on-site system rather than its planned discharge into Lake Thomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He passed that question to Elliott Lopez to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat wouldn’t be our place as the province,\u201d she said. \u201cThey would work through all of their application and processes again with HRM as they are the primary planning body that we work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe decision was made by the developer to scale back and to do the on-site septic system, I understand, in response to community concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”71″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”192″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”169″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n MLA Brian Wong made a post on his Facebook about the news that he relayed to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the designation of Site B (Carr Farm Development) becoming a Special Planning Area is a new application for redevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis will expedite more housing for Fall River seniors as new redevelopment applications usually take three to five years,\u201d he said. \u201cI also know the community is very concerned about the wastewater treatment. \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wong, the Advanced Education Minister, said the developer has submitted plans to HRM and Environment and Climate Change provided comments last week as the developer looks at advanced on-site septic \u2013 which may now be a viable option for the redevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe long-term care facility will have its own on-site septic system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lohr said he appreciates the developer hearing the concerns from the community and acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe do appreciate the developer taking those things into account,\u201d said Lohr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know they’re building a fair bit of trail in that area too, which we appreciate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”105″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”210″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new special planning areas are: The Minister has also approved a recommendation by the Executive Panel on Housing in the Halifax Regional Municipality to issue a development agreement to Perry Lake Developments Inc. for 120 units off Ingram Drive in Fall River (Opportunity Site C). (We have a separate story on this going online on Wednesday) [adrotate banner=”206″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”126″] <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”188″] [adrotate banner=”127″] FALL RIVER: The Carr Farm project is getting a redesign\u2014thanks in large part to community concerns that the developer has heard. At a press conference on Tuesday Aug. 6, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr announced the Carr Farm development would be one of four new designated Special Planning Areas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2245,37,1610,121,39,48,4268],"class_list":["post-47446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-brian-wong","tag-carr-farm","tag-cathy-deagle-gammon-2","tag-hrm","tag-ingram-drive","tag-n-s","tag-treated-effluent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IMG_6525-1024x683.jpg\")
– Westphal urban reserve lands, Dartmouth \u2013 up to 18,000 units, plus 96 long-term care rooms
– 1226 Cole Harbour Rd., Cole Harbour \u2013 more than 511 units, plus 144 long-term care rooms
– 1109 Fall River Rd., Fall River (Opportunity Site B) \u2013 316 units, plus 144 long-term care rooms
– Paper Mill Lake, Bedford \u2013 up to 4,714 units, including 214 units in Phase 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amendments to the development agreement for the Southdale-Mount Hope special planning area were also approved to allow the project to progress as planned, with no impact from changes to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.
Maps of the special planning areas are available at: https:\/\/novascotia.ca\/housing-panel\/<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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