Case 21875 - Wilfred Jackson Way and Highway 7, Westphal

Request

Akoma Holdings Inc. is applying to allow specific commercial, recreational and residential uses at the former Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children (NSHCC) in Westphal to allow the appropriate adaptive re-use of the property. This proposal cannot be considered under existing MPS policies. Therefore, the applicant is seeking amendments to the Regional Municipal Planning Strategy, Cole Harbour/Westphal Municipal Planning Strategy and Cole Harbour/Westphal Land Use Bylaw to enable their proposal.

Proposal

Akoma proposes to re-develop the former Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children (NSHCC) lands to create “a revitalized and energetic Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, as the setting for a Centre of Excellence for the entire African Nova Scotian community”. Akoma wishes to enable a mix of housing, economic and recreational opportunities for the community. Akoma Holding’s immediate focus is renovating the former Home at 18 Wilfred Jackson Way, Westphal to include a seniors gym, café, salon focused on clients of African descent, and offices, and enabling a seniors housing project adjacent to the former Home. The current zoning of the property does not allow for the proposed uses, so Akoma Holdings is going through a planning process to change the policies and zoning applicable to the NSHCC site. 

Process

The application will be considered under the Municipal Planning Strategy Amendment process.

Status

An online live public information meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, beginning at 6:30 p.m. using Microsoft Teams Live Event. At this meeting, presentations will be given about the proposal with municipal staff and the applicant in attendance to answer questions and receive feedback.

Visit Shape Your City Halifax for more information on participating in this meeting. 

Akoma is currently proceeding with Phase 1.1 of the project, which is to amend the planning policies to allow the transformative use of the former home building for commercial and community uses. This phase of the project is currently at the review team stage of the process where the request is reviewed by internal municipal staff from Planning, Development Engineering (including Traffic Services), Building Standards, Civic Addressing, Subdivision and Development, and Heritage Planning. External agencies also reviewing the application submission include Halifax Water, NS Power and NS Environment.

Documents Submitted for Evaluation

The applicant has submitted plans and studies required by municipal staff to properly evaluate the application. View the plans and documents submitted by the applicant in support of their proposal.