Dartmouth Main Street Area Plan Review

In May 2008, Regional Council approved the Dartmouth Main Street streetscape vision.  This culminated two years of public consultation on the future of the Main Street Business Improvement District and Regional Plan Growth Centre.  Consultation included property owners, the public, business owners, and planners. The result is a strong vision:

The Main Street area will become a dense, mixed use village core with great pedestrian spaces, goods and services, and facilities that invite residents to walk or bicycle to obtain daily needs and in so doing informally interact with their neighbours.

Council has already acted on many of the recommendations including re-zoning the entire business district to C-2 which prohibits any new warehousing and billboard uses, and allows for mixed use residential and commercial activities.

As a further step in implementing the vision, we have been taking a more comprehensive look at our current development by-laws and policies.  This is called a Plan Review.

The objective has been to create a special Land Use By-Law (LUB) and Secondary Planning Strategy (SPS) for Main Street and the surrounding area.  The new LUB and SPS will provide guidance and encouragement to private landholders as they redevelop and update their properties.

Today strip sprawl, expansive parking lots and streetscapes which cater to automobiles still characterize Main Street.  However, there is much potential to implement the vision for a real community core in the area. These types of commercial core redevelopment projects are occurring with greater frequency all over North America as communities come to understand the economic value of “place-making”.

With this in mind, we have been exploring how HRM’s zoning and planning can shape development to reflect the Streetscape vision while ensuring a commercially vibrant Main Street area in Dartmouth.  We have examined options for parking, building size and building set-backs in four public workshops.  Your participation has helped us shape development in the area for years to come.  Come and see the proposed new plan and zoning at our final public meeting on Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 7 p.m. in the Stevens Road United Baptist Church gymnasium.

To learn more about the Dartmouth Main Street Area Plan Review contact Marcus Garnet, Senior Planner at 490-4481 or email garnetm@halifax.ca. 

Additional information can also be found at http://www.halifax.ca/districts/dist06/District6-MainStreet.html.