Council to Armco: ‘Jump? How high, sir, how high…?’ ‘Good dog…’

This column was first published in the Halifax Examiner May 28, 2018. Last week, Halifax City Council again/still/always decided to re-re-re-write its planning bylaws on the fly for the greater good and increased profit of a private developer whose books it didn’t bother examining, let alone asking to glimpse once, maybe upside down on […]

City council, the developer, and the deal that isn’t quite

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner March 26, 2018. Halifax City Council can be — even at its best of times — confusing, contradictory, confounding. Last week, council was not, even by its own modest standards, at its best. Councillors were considering again/still/always a proposal from APL, an Armoyan development company, to erect a commercial-residential […]

Development: It’s time to talk

It’s fair to say no one likes Halifax’s development planning process. Consider developer Joe Metledge, who successfully sued the city over its flip-flopping on his St. Pat’s-Alexandra School redevelopment project. During a recent breakfast meeting of developers, planners and lawyers, Metledge complained about the city’s failure to defend his industry against the “demonization of development […]

New developments demand ‘exceptions’: where’s the public benefit?

Residents attending a community meeting last Thursday did not — as Metro’s Stephanie Taylor put it — “mince words” about a 29-storey commercial and residential tower proposed for the corner of Quinpool Road and Robie St. “Sixteen of the 19 people who raised their voices did so to blast the proposal.” George Armoyan’s Willow Tree Tower […]