Council Update: Library Facilities Plan, Ferry Schedule, Willow Tree and more

Library Facilities Master Plan: The first thing on Council’s agenda on Tuesday was a presentation by Halifax Public Libraries CEO, Asa Kachan, on the Library’s upcoming facilities plan. Halifax Public Libraries is facing the same challenges that libraries are facing throughout the world as they shift from places that were just for lending books into community hubs. This is having an impact on space requirements. The Library Facilities Plan will attempt to meet the evolving needs of the public, while also keeping up with HRM’s future population growth.

With the Halifax Central Library project finished, the focus of the new Plan will be on the other thirteen branches that make up the library system. While we weren’t given specifics, the CEO indicated that the five emerging priorities are Bedford, Halifax North, Dartmouth North, Keshan Goodman and Alderney Gate. I was pleased to see Alderney on the list. Alderney is the third busiest branch in the entire library system, seeing more than 300,000 visitors each year. Only the Central Library and Keshan Goodman are busier. Alderney has served us very well, but it’s now at its mid-life and is ready for a refresh. I think there are a lot of exciting possibilities to renovate Alderney and make it an even better anchor for Downtown Dartmouth.

There was no motion for Council coming out of the Library’s presentation, it was more of a heads-up as to what’s coming down the pipe. Expect to hear more about the Library Facilities Plan and what it might mean for Alderney over the next few years.

Alderney Ferry Schedule Adjustments: Still on the subject of Alderney, the Ferry schedule was back at Council. A quick refresh if you’ve missed previous discussions about the ferry. In 2015, HRM hired an extra ferry crew for the Alderney route to mitigate the impact of the Big Lift. The extra crew allowed HRM to increase the frequency on weekday evenings from 30 minutes to 15 and expand the Sunday service from a half-day to a full-day.  Ridership responded to the stick (harder to cross the bridge) and the carrot (better ferry service) and grew by 50% on the Alderney route over the last two years. Given that growth, I was able to convince Council during the 2017/2018 budget to keep the extra service on a trial basis.

What Council had to decide Tuesday was what to do with the extra crew now that bridge closures aren’t going to be a regular evening event. What we opted for was to take some of the weekday evening hours and move them to the daytime to plug the gap in 15 minute service that currently exists from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. The new schedule starting on February 19 will be all day 15 minute service and then 30 minute service from 8:00 pm to midnight. This makes sense because there is strong demand during the day, evening usage tends to decline after 8:00 pm, and the simplified schedule will be more user friendly. No more being 45 minutes late for work if you miss the 9:00 pm! The popular full day service on Sunday will remain as is.

Unfortunately, HRM has to wait till February to make the change because of the complicated process to amend transit schedules. We could have opted to change the schedule sooner, but the change wouldn’t have been reflected in all of the online transit tools. The result would be people getting the wrong information from Google and apps and then potentially missing connections. Council opted to wait on making the change until everything can be updated in February. Given that December is an unusual month with most people in holiday mode, I don’t think waiting till February is a big deal.

At budget time in the New Year, I will need to once again move that Council provide transit with the funding to keep the extra hours on the Alderney Ferry for 2018/2019. If ridership stays up in 2018, as I expect it will, transit will hopefully then make the extra hours a core part of the 2019/2020 service.

Willow Tree: We had a bit of a surprise debate about the 20 29 25 20 storey development at the corner of Quinpool Road and Robie Street (the Willow Tree intersection). The history on this one is a bit complicated. Regional Council voted to initiate a planning process back in 2014 in response to an application from APL Properties. In initiating the plan amendment, Council provided some specific instructions to staff to address issues related to height, mass, density, shadow and spacing. Staff returned to Council in September 2016 to report that they had satisfied all of the criteria except they couldn’t reach an agreement with the developer about the height of the building. APL wanted 29 storeys while staff argued that 20 was appropriate. Council sided with APL though and voted to proceed with 29. Staff then went off to write the plan amendment.

Unfortunately for APL, the 2016 election happened while staff were drafting and some of the new faces around the room changed the dynamic. When the draft plan amendment and a request to schedule a public hearing returned to Council in March 2017, Council revised the amendment to go back to 20 storeys. Since March, a public hearing for 20 storeys was scheduled and cancelled because APL wasn’t prepared to proceed.

So why was the Willow Tree proposal at Council this week when Council had already voted to schedule a public hearing at 20? The Willow Tree came back in the form of an Information Report from the planning department. In the report, staff indicate that APL isn’t willing to proceed with a development at 20 because it’s not profitable enough for them to build. APL has instead suggested that they could reduce the height to 25 by shrinking the size of the units (same number, just smaller). They assert that this would make their business case work.

Councillor Cleary brought the Information Report forward for discussion and we ended up having a long discussion about 20 versus 25. I strongly backed the original staff recommendation of 20 storeys in March and nothing in the Information Report or in the debate caused me to change my view. Staff recommended 20 and that’s what’s in the Centre Plan. The public consultation that has gone into the Centre Plan has been extensive and what I generally hear from residents is that they support its balanced approach. The Willow Tree proposal is a plan amendment, which means it’s entirely optional. Council is under no obligation to accept a change. The Centre Plan regulations for Quinpool Road are about 6 months away from coming to Council. So the key question for me is, with the Centre Plan so close and with broad public support for its framework, why entertain an optional request that allows for something different? I couldn’t see any answer to this question that would lead me to support 25. It’s not Council’s job to change plans so that a project can meet a specific owner’s financial criteria. The vote ended up being 9 in favour of APL’s 25 storey proposal and 8 against. Since Council has already given direction on a plan amendment of 20 storeys, the motion to change to 25 was considered a motion of reconsideration. A motion of reconsideration requires 2/3 support so a narrow majority of 9-8 in favour of 25 wasn’t enough to overturn Council’s previous direction. A public hearing at 20 is what’s open to APL if they wish to proceed.

Incentives for Affordable Housing: Regional Council gave first reading to an amendment to the building bylaw that would exempt non-profits that are constructing affordable housing from permit fees. This arose out of concerns expressed by the Housing Trust related to getting their two projects on Gottingen Street off the ground. Although the amendment was in response to the Trust’s request, it has the potential to benefit all non-profits involved in affordable housing. It’s a small thing, but something that Council can do to make it a little bit easier for the non-profits doing great work out there.

We also voted to ask the Province to amend the HRM Charter to allow for a special tax rate for non-profits and for the ability to provide multi-year tax relief. Multi-year tax relief is important because banks lend money only based on what’s absolutely certain. The fact that non-profit organizations receive tax relief from HRM’s tax exemption program year after year doesn’t change the fact that they need to reapply each year. It means that taxes that non-profits don’t actually pay still get counted against what they can potentially borrow by the banks making it more challenging to arrange financing. The non-profit tax rate and multi-year tax relief request brings HRM’s outstanding legislative requests with the Province to 23. Having to seek provincial amendments all the time is sure a cumbersome way to run a province/municipality.

Recycling Cloth: One thing that I thought was pretty neat on our agenda was a request for expressions of interest from non-profits regarding cloth recycling. Audits at Otter Lake indicate that cloth accounts for 8.6% of household waste collected at the landfill, costing HRM nearly $475,000 a year in tipping fees. It’s possible to divert this waste. Most people are familiar with the used-clothing bins that take donations for resale, but many charities are also willing to take stained or torn cloth for recycling. The latter isn’t widely known so most things with holes or stains end up in the trash.

Rather than introduce a curbside recycling program that would be costly and would likely divert materials away from charities that are already collecting cloth to help sustain their operations, staff proposed enhancing the Halifax Recycles App. The idea is that the App could provide people with information about nearby donation bins or link residents with charities that are willing to come pickup donations at the doorstep. The Halifax Recycle App developer indicates that this would be a first in North America. To make sure all charities have a chance to be involved Council approved staff going out with an expression of interest. This seems to me, like an innovative solution. We’ll see what develops and what the uptake is.

Other:

• Approved a surplus property sale to the Fall River Minor Football Association
• Selected Waye Mason as our new Deputy Mayor
• Adopted a plan for how HRM will prepare the 2018/2019 budget
• Increased spending to finish work underway in Titus Smith Park in Fairview (poor soil conditions meant it cost more than planned)
• Directed staff to prepare amendments bylaw amendments to allow HRM to waive transit and recreation fees for asylum seekers and refugee claimants
• Amended Admin Order One to end the automatic referral of presentations at Council to staff. New system is present at Council and someone one Council needs to be moved to take some action in relation to a presentation.
• Directed staff to prepare amendments to the parking bylaw to allow carshare vehicles to be eligible for residential parking permits and to locate pick-up stations in the street right-of-way
• Approved a 50% grant for work on 2146 Brunswick Street, a registered heritage propertyIncreased the contract with McPhail Transportation Planning Services so that the contractor can finish work on the Integrated Mobility Plan
• Requested a staff report about improvements to the Councillors Code of Conduct and a report on adding Springfield Lake Recreation Centre to the list of facilities able to access capital reserve funds