Case 24259 - Regional Centre Land Use By-law Housekeeping Amendments

Request

Halifax Regional Council initiated housekeeping amendments to the Regional Centre Land Use By-law arising out of the Centre Plan approval process.

Proposal

On October 26, 2021, Regional Council approved the Regional Centre Secondary Municipal Planning (SMPS) Strategy and Regional Centre Land Use By-law (LUB) to guide development and growth within the Regional Centre.  At that time Council also requested a supplementary report on five items identified by members of the public at the public hearing. These items along with a small number of other housekeeping amendments were discussed in the January 14, 2022 staff report considered by Regional Council at its February 8, 2022 meeting. The required amendments to the SMPS were considered by Regional Council as part of Case 24260.    

The proposed housekeeping amendments to the Land Use By-Law include:

• wording changes to Subsection 132(2) to separate requirements for the Spring Garden Road and South Park Street Special Areas; 
• adjustments to the LUB text as needed to clarify floor area definition requirements as they pertain to secondary suites and backyard suites;  
• revisions to Schedule 6, Robie Street Transportation Reserve (TR), to adjust the location of the transportation reserve near the intersection of Robie and May Street (2705 – 2729 Robie Street) based on updated technical information;
• clarification of front and flanking setbacks requirements for any new public streets that may be developed in the future, which are not shown on LUB Schedule 18; 
• clarification of the built form and design requirements that will not apply to yards facing provincial 100 series highways, including grade-oriented premises, streetwall requirements, and ground floor requirements;  
• revisions to the parking structure screening requirements to clarify which public views are required to be screened; 
• revisions to the LUB land use tables to move “daycare use” from the commercial category of uses to the institutional category of uses to clarify that commercial floor area limitations applicable to the HR-1 and HR-2 zones do not apply to a daycare use;
• revisions to a certain LUB diagram to further clarify the intended interpretation of regulations for differing lot configurations; 
• minor wording adjustments needed to address inconsistent cross-referencing and use of terms; an
• clarifying design requirements for corner treatments by adding materials & colour and requiring two treatments instead of one;  
• clarifying that one garage door and an associated ramp to access internal motor vehicle parking or internal off-street loading spaces shall be permitted along a pedestrian-oriented commercial street, subject to certain conditions; 
• adding a “temporary use” to all the land use tables;   
• adding an elevator enclosure that does not exceed 6.0 square metres in area to the list of heigh-exempt features for low-density dwelling uses;  
• clarifying that only low-density dwelling height exempt features in Section 103 (7) and 103(8) apply to the Young Avenue – A (YA-A) Special Area, including multi-unit dwellings up to 5 dwelling units, while adding a provision to allow a non-habitable pitched roof to exceed the height of the residential penthouse by 1.5 metres, to support pitched roof design roof requirement approved under Package B; 
• assigning minimum required front or flanking setbacks in specific zones where the setbacks have not been specified on Schedule 18, as may be the case for new streets;  
• as part of grade-related premises requirements, allowing a residential lobby on a floor containing a grade-related dwelling unit use; 
• adding separation distance to the list of exemptions for allowing legally existing accessory structures located in a rear yard to be permitted to change its use into a backyard suite use;  
• clarifying that variable signs can be approved in certain zones if deemed to not pose any risk to public safety by the Municipal Engineer; 
• adding a lobby use to the definition of ground-oriented premises;  
• adding a residential lobby on a floor containing a grade-related dwelling unit use to the list of uses exempt from minimum required ground floor height;   
• clarifying the definition of a Streetwall;
• adding a definition of a “Permeable Vegetated Grid System”; 
• given the maximum building dimension variation, adding the following conditions to the 20% streetwall exemption along a streetline or transportation reserve for main buildings: 
  i)  that each section not having a streetwall stepback does not exceed 14.0 metres in length along the streetline or transportation reserve, and
  ii)   that there is a minimum required separation distance of 14.0 metres along the streetline or transportation reserve between sections not having a streetwall stepback.;    
• amending “Schedule 18: Minimum Front and Flanking Setbacks” to change the minimum setback on PID 00004010 (Halifax Forum Site) from 3 metres to 1.5 metres along the Young Street and Windsor Street frontages to facilitate the development of the site.   

The above amendments are housekeeping in nature and are intended to implement previous Council direction, are aligned by existing policies, and are intended to help facilitate a clearer administration of the land use by-law.    
 

Process

The application will be considered under the Land Use By-Law Amendment process, 

Status

This notification was posted on October 4, 2022:

The public hearing will be held on Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. at Harbour East-Marine Drive Community Council Chamber, 60 Alderney Drive, Dartmouth, NS.  All oral and written submissions will be considered at that time. Get information on how to sign up to speak in advance. Written submissions may be forwarded to the Municipal Clerk by mail, P.O. Box 1749, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 3A5; by fax, 902-490-4208; or by e-mail.  Written submissions should be received by the Municipal Clerk’s office as early as possible and not later than 3:00 p.m. on September 28, 2022.

A copy of the staff report may be viewed online or obtained by contacting the Office of the Municipal Clerk at 902-490-4210. 

On August 10, 2022 Regional Centre Community Council gave First Reading and scheduled a public hearing on the proposed amendments.  View the recommendation staff report. 

Documents Submitted for Evaluation

• Staff Report