Tag Archives: Corridor

❤️ Halifax? Write to Stop Robie Street Widening!

Help stop HRM’s $200m plan to demolish Robie Street’s last historic neighbourhood (North to Cunard). Residents strongly oppose the demolition of dozens (50-75) of affordable units & cutting ~80 trees to add a bus lane. Data shows even for public transit, road widening won’t reduce traffic. Cheaper, better solutions to optimize transit include signalized lane changes (i.e. MacDonald Bridge or Chebucto Road) to reallocate existing road space. HRM must protect & repopulate the uniquely diverse, affordable community. In housing & climate crises unnecessarily destroying affordable homes & cutting street trees is criminal. Write HRM Mayor & Council -see info below or write from your ❤️! *Wider Roads Make Worse Cities

Write to Stop Robie Street Widening. Help spread the word by circulating, printing, posting this poster.

*Citizens oppose widening Robie St. *Do not use $200m to destroy a unique neighbourhood of First Nations, youth shelters, co-ops, heritage, affordable housing, business.
*Do not cut 80 historic trees. They slow traffic, calm drivers, clean air, reduce noise, give shade & beauty.
*Do not destroy a neighbourhood to make Robie a uniform width Young-Cunard. That’s outdated & destructive.
*Use cheap, proven options; Time of day lane changes Chebucto Rd/MacDonald Bridge!
*Spend savings on buses, ferries, drivers, lower fares, shelters, the Mumford Terminal, public safety.
*Our new Council can legally reverse the last council’s plan.
*Even for public transit, wider roads don’t reduce traffic or congestion.
Please let friends & neighbours know. Ask them to write council c/o clerks@halifax.ca, post on social media, print & distribute our flyer below or our poster. The pictures tells it all.

2025 feb. flyer HandsOffRobie

(1) HRM April 24th TSC Report estimates road construction for 2029 (ish) to be $170m but as costs have inflated at an extraordinary fate from $53m in 2022 to $73m in 2023 for land acquisition alone, FHC believes the construction cost will be closer to $200M. THIS DOES NOT seem to INCLUDE COSTS FOR BRT – ONLY ROAD WIDENING.

 

Mayor Fillmore-We Worry About Our Meeting, Neighbourhood & Misinformation

Writing on behalf of FHC and Robie St residents, Peggy Cameron and Howard once again ask Mayor Fillmore for a meeting. The first request was on November 4th 2024 with multiple follow up inquiries.

We worry that details on HRM’s plan to spend at least $75m to acquire property and demolish buildings to widen Robie Street for a bus lane are not fully vetted with residents or Council. The plan from 2018 or 2019 needs to be re-examined for its merit and to reassess using scarce public money to wreck our Robie Street neighbourhood from North to Cunard Streets. (Map details: https://shorturl.at/tCDHU ) 

Recent email communication from Councillor Cleary to residents continues to confuse or mislead. We worry other Councillors may also be unaware of misinformed. We again clarify why the Mayor & Council must optimize spending public money on reallocating existing road space, more buses, more drivers with better salaries, lower fares, better public safety and services such as bus shelters with seats and sidewalks and trees for shade and comfort. And stop the plan to wreck our Robie St neighbourhood.
Details below
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HRM -Cancel Robie St Widening & Save $73m

FHC has written to HRM to cancel its Robie St widening plan and save $73m. That’s HRM’s budget to buy property, demolish buildings and cut 80 trees for a bus lane. But data shows, even for public transportation, widening roads does not reduce traffic congestion. Instead demolishing dozens of

Widening roads for public transportation does not reduce traffic. Photo:Tim Krochak/Herald

small-scale affordable units and cutting 80 trees for a plan that won’t work, HRM should use signalized lane changes i.e. MacDonald Bridge or Chebucto Road. 
The historic Robie St neighbourhood has a concentration of First Nations, housing co-ops, youth shelters, new Canadians, small businesses. As HRM has no obligation to proceed with the previous Council’s plan, stopping the plan to wreck this community should be an easy decision.
 See details in FHC’s letter here: FHC 2025 HRM Council, Robie St FOIPOP.pages

Amend the Centre Plan, Protect Halifax Trees! Public Hearing, May 21

Halifax planning is killing urban trees. Cutting trees for the QEII hospital is part of a bigger problem. The Centre Plan reduced public open space requirements and increased lot coverage for development threatening trees & green space. And its Robie Street Transportation Corridor will cut ~ 80 trees to widen the street. See: https://shorturl.at/tCDHU

Robie Street Transportation Corridor will cut ~ 80 trees to widen the street and demolish dozens of buildings. Take a detailed look here: https://shorturl.at/tCDHU

But here’s how we can change this ! Continue reading →

Renovated Robie St House Demolished & What about those trees?

 

Historic, newly renovated four-unit building at 2110 Robie Street- demolished.

Mid-town Halifax housing takes another hit this morning as an “Investor” knocks down 2110 Robie to save on maintenance and taxes and to profit from poor planning.
 
At least four units are destroyed in a recently renovated, pristine and irreplaceable building next to the North Common. (see pictures below) This is one of 450 demolition permits HRM has issued since January 2020.
Please sign the petition to Petition to Stop Demolitions – shorturl.at/dlxET
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Todd Veinotte- Why Halifax Common Pool Needs a Better Location

Halifax Central Common Pool re-do — good idea bad location.

News 97.5 Todd Veinotte explores FHC’s concerns and better ideas for where / how HRM could locate the $16 million dollar pool. (Hint: not next to a traffic corridor & 1500 cars worth of pollution)

Halifax Common Pool – HRM Dives into the Wrong End of Planning Process

(Ki’jupuk / Halifax) HRM’s ad hoc planning (get it done) vs long term (do it right) once again drowns potential for the best outcome — in this case for the Halifax Common’s new aquatic centre.

Your car, my lungs –a powerful mural by Marta Frej, via @WarszawaBezSmog)

While always supportive of and recognizing the need for a new public outdoor aquatic centre, Friends of Halifax Common continue to be disappointed with a process that now has HRM diving into an unsuitable location with an unknown building design for the Central Common swimming pool re-design. 

Ahead of any public consultation HRM established a new aquatic centre as a top objective of the 2017 Halifax Common Master Plan. On-going disregard for public consultation now lands the $16 million-dollar project ahead of a final Halifax Common Master Plan.

This predetermined outcome ignores considering other locations that would increase public open green space and save money with rationalized facility use. It also ignores the Feb 8, 2022 directive HRM staff received to “undertake public consultation and a review of the Master Plan and return to Regional Council within 18 months with the results of the consultation and any recommended amendments, along with implementation plans as may be advised.”

Most importantly better location choices would avoid the well-known harmful health impact of traffic pollution, noise and accidents that will result from the addition of at least 1500 cars using the QEII hospital’s two new $100 million dollar parking garages directly across the street. That the parkades are associated with the hospital redevelopment will not alleviate the grave and known impact that traffic emissions have on children’s health.

Locating the pool near the Citadel High School could have budgeted financial support for the completion of the upper floor(s) of the HRM recreational space inside the school. HRM has paid 7% of the building’s operational fee since 2007 but the upper ~10,500 ft2  remains unfinished and unused. 

Or locating the pool on the Centennial Pool parking lot could have expanded public green space by landscaping/naturalizing that area. And use or expansion of the Centennial’s staff offices, change rooms and washroom facilities could have reduced overall building requirements and facility costs.

HRM staff’s record of public comments at the December 2017 consultation raised concerns about predeterming the prioritization of the pool and many asked that HRM “Wait for Master Plan.” That public consultation did not find that there should be a new building. The design for the aquatic centre area from that time did not show an increase in the building footprint which evidently is now two buildings. 

There has been no public consultation on the present building design- an architectural black box – even though citizens will presumably be users of the year-round community room, kitchenette and performance space. Limiting public consultation can only curtail the imagination and creativity that might lead us to one day design and approve a natural, wild-space play area.

For the future FHC looks forward to a complete, approved and registered Halifax Common Master Plan. That final Plan should reflect proper and fully engaged public consultation and be informed by the 1994 Halifax Common Plan, not the desires of HRM staff. A Plan that protects and plans for the entire Halifax Common granted “to and for the use of the inhabitants of the town of Halifax as Common, forever” in 1763. And a Plan that is in place before beginning to implement, build, renovate or achieve any agreed-upon new elements to the Halifax Common. 

Chronicle Herald Review – Artist critiques HRM’s plans: Robie St., a case study

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