Council Update: Dartmouth Lakes, Access Program, Nature-Based Stormwater

Agenda, August 20

Watershed Planning
Some really good news on Council’s agenda for Dartmouth’s Lakes: HRM is launching a watershed planning program, and Dartmouth’s Lakes are part of the initial pilot. The idea is to have a multi-year plan with clear goals and measurable outcomes.

HRM has done a few things around Lake Banook in response to the Pollution Control Study that I initiated a few years ago, including examining sewer lines for cross-connections, installing a rain garden on Prince Albert Road, putting pigeon netting under the Circ Bridge, doing some public relations to encourage residents to properly dispose of dog waste, and some shoreline naturalization at Birch Cove. While these are good projects, there has been a lack of overall purpose. Just what is the long-term goal? To me the goal is pretty simple: we want to have healthy lakes that we can continue to use for recreation. How we do that though and how we measure it hasn’t been clear. We need a plan for the watershed identifying clearly what we’re seeking to achieve and how to do it. The result will be tangible actions that can be measured and implemented.

So how will HRM proceed with a watershed plan for Banook and all its connected lakes? The idea is to form a Steering Committee with representatives from various interest groups such as property owners/developers, recreation organizations, non-profit groups, first nations, HRM staff, and citizens. The Steering Committee will carry out public engagement and a facilitator will help produce a plan that will then come to Council for approval. This is the approach that HRM used for HalifACT and that staff indicate that has been used for planning in other watersheds, such as Alberta’s Lake Management Framework, and, closer to home, in King’s County/Kentville. HRM is expecting it will take two years to produce an overall plan.

I did receive some concerns from members of HRM’s Watershed Advisory Committee that doing watershed planning via a Steering Committee that aims is to form consensus could water down goals and objectives in favour of parties that might not have the best interests of the watershed at heart. The involvement of Halifax Water and developers was specifically identified as cause for concern.

I understand the caution and took the concerns forward to staff. The staff response is that there is also real danger in having a top-down plan that doesn’t have buy in since some of what HRM will be asking people to do will be voluntary. They also note that the diversity of interests on the Steering Committee means that no one party gets to dictate outcomes. Everyone gets a chance to have input, but no one gets a veto, the work will still be grounded in scientific reality, and the resulting plan will still require Council approval. Staff also pointed to successful projects elsewhere and here at home (HalifACT used this approach). I understand the concern and the risk of a weak plan isn’t zero, but what was before Council was a bird in hand. This is a real chance to make progress on Dartmouth’s Lakes and have a real plan of action with measurable goals and specific projects and outcomes. I trust the expert advice here that this is the best way to proceed. So stay stuned for watershed planning in 2025 and 2026.

HRM Access Program Expansion
Council also approved changes to its Affordable Access Program. The Access Program is a one-stop application that qualifies low-income households for access to property tax relief, transit access, and reduced rec fees. Participants have to prove their Canada Revenue Notice of Assessment or, in the case of newcomers, be referred by the Immigrant Service Association of Nova Scotia.

One of the problems with the Access Program as it relates to recreation is that it currently only applies to facilities that HRM runs directly. HRM’s large multi-district facilities that are run by community groups, like the Zatzman Sportsplex, are currently not part of the Access Program. The multi-district facilities have their own programs, but their scale and scope varies by facility. Council approved staff’s plan to engage with the multi-district facilities to extend the Access Program to all facilities by 2025. This will come forward as part of our budget deliberations in 2025-2026.

Nature-based Stormwater Management
Council approved my request for a staff report on a nature-based stormwater management program. The old thinking around how to handle stormwater was to get it into pipes and drain it away as quickly as possible. Over time, that thinking has changed and now engineers increasingly seek to hold stormwater on the land where it can be absorbed and filtered by the landscape and drain away over time rather than all at once in a big flood. Infrastructure such as bio-swales and rain gardens can improve water quality, create habitat for wildlife, and just add beauty to public spaces.

In HRM, developers of new communities are required to manage stormwater on site and not add any additional runoff, which has led to some innovative approaches. The problem is, there is no program to retrofit the built infrastructure we already have. Projects in existing areas have been limited and sporadic one-offs. For example, a few years ago, HRM added a large rain garden to the triangle of green space formed by Prince Albert Road, Sinclair Street, and Rixdale Drive. Before the rain garden was built, water in this area would hit the street, pickup excessive nutrients and pollutants, and then flow directly into Lake Banook. Now the stormwater flows into the rain garden where nutrients and pollutants can be absorbed and filtered.

The Prince Albert rain garden was a sort of pilot project that was wrapped into the larger road rebuild. It was something I had to push hard for as it was something completely new for HRM. Without an overall program, projects like the Prince Albert rain garden remain one-offs. The only other example I can think of where HRM did anything like the Prince Albert project is the new planters on Spring Garden Road. HRM should scale these projects up and make them part of the many regular road recapitalization projects that we undertake every year. They shouldn’t be special exceptions to business as usual, but a much more standardized approach.

The intention of my staff report request is to start the process of launching a dedicated program for nature-based approaches for stormwater. We should be able to have nice things too like:

Other

• HRM adjusted recreation fees to include differences for ball diamond classifications in 2025 and made a number of housekeeping amendments to the fee bylaw
• First reading to the Marketing Levy Bylaw to assign responsibility for collecting the levy for short-term rentals to platform providers like Air BNB
• Approved a new operating agreement for the Lake Echo Community Centre
• Invited the Sheet Harbour Chamber of Commerce to submit a proposal for the streetscaping area rate in the community (how to pay for the sidewalks that aren’t part of the rural tax rate)
• First reading for the new Road Trails Bylaw (limited ATV road use in rural HRM to connect gaps in trails)
• Received the Convention Centre’s Annual Report
• Approved amendments to the Street Improvements Bylaws (paving of gravel roads) to apply an area rate to Lakehill Drive in Gaetz Brook
• Directed the CAO to write the Province to request amendments to the Charter to allow HRM to refuse building and planning permits from construction companies that have outstanding fines owed to HRM
• Entered into a contribution agreement with the Lake District Recreation Association
• Requested a staff report on (1) a stabilization funding program for events that have had to refocus in the changed post-COVID world, and (2) on extending the water service boundary to include Hammonds Plains
• Declared a parcel of land that use to be part of the Cogswell interchange surplus so that Council can hold a public hearing to officially close it as a public street. Land is being transferred to Crombie as part of an exchange agreement. Crombie had land HRM needed for the redesigned road network and Granville Park so HRM and Crombie are trading property
• Approved a bunch of in the weeds changes to HRM’s Affordable Housing Grant Program to incorporate the Housing Accelerator Funding, and better align the program to CMHC’s funding and geographic requirements
• Approved event grants for the NOWADAYS Music and Culture Festival and the 2024 U Sports Women’s Soccer Championship totaling $17,500 (paid for by the marketing levy)