Midtown tower toppled
By AMY PUGSLEY FRASER City Hall Reporter

The owners of the Midtown Tavern were considering their options Monday after their proposal for a 17-storey hotel was rejected by the Utility and Review Board.

“We’re still a little taken aback by it all; it’s pretty frustrating,” Eric Grant said in an interview after the 104-page decision was released.

Last July, the Peninsula community council approved a development agreement permitting a hotel tower on the tavern site, at the corner of Prince and Grafton streets, in a vote of 3-1.

Within days, appeals were launched by several heritage groups that said the tower was too high and wasn’t architecturally compatible with neighbouring buildings.

On Monday, those groups were vindicated when the URB decision — written by Peter Gurnham, Roland Deveau and Wayne Cochrane — came down squarely in their favour, reversing the community council vote.

“We’re obviously very pleased,” said Alan Parish, president of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, who also credited lawyer Ron Pink and his law firm.

His group led the appeal along with the Peninsula South community council, Federation of Nova Scotia Heritage and Paul and Joyce McCulloch.

The decision will be important for future development proposals in metro, Mr. Parish said, because it highlights the importance of heritage provisions in municipal planning strategies.

It’s not the first time the Heritage Trust has taken on development proposals in the city and won; it also played a role in the development of the Garden Crest apartment complex on Summer Street.

“We like to think the reason why we have the reproduction of the old building is because of the fight the Heritage Trust put up there,” he said.

The original proposal for the Cambridge Suites on Brunswick Street also involved a different and higher building until the group came along.

“We at Heritage Trust like to think that we’re the prime body in the province that fights to protect our built heritage … so we see getting involved in political or legal issues as part of our mandate.”

For Philip Pacey, a noted local heritage activist, the decision is “good news.”

“The proposal was very inappropriate when it was made and it has really been quite a worry now for about 20 months,” he said Monday.

Mr. Pacey said the development officer who first worked on the file recommended against the proposal because the building would be too high – as did both the city’s heritage advisory and downtown planning advisory committees.

“(The decision) should be some encouragement … that they were indeed doing the right thing.”

At URB hearings in May and June, city planner Gary Porter testified that the approval by community council set a “dangerous precedent” because the Midtown tower was a “clear-cut case” of a building that was too tall and didn’t comply with the planning policies.

However, he said he would have recommended the development if it had been a 12-storey structure.

On Monday, the Midtown owners said that lowering the hotel tower by five storeys was not in the cards.

“The 12 storeys was just somebody driving it down your throat,” Mr. Grant said of city planning staff. “We’re not thinking about it right now. We just don’t know what we’re doing.”

He said the mood at the Midtown —– where hundreds of patrons signed a petition in favour of the proposed development — was “so-so.”

“A lot of customers are shaking their heads.”

As for an appeal of the URB decision, Mr. Grant said he’d have to get together with his family and developer Gordon Rudolph to see “whether it’s worth our while” to file an appeal with the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal within the allowed 30 days.

“It all comes down to time and money.




I hope they appeal. I hate how smug the commitee's being about the whole deal. The worst line is this one...
We like to think the reason why we have the reproduction of the old building is because of the fight the Heritage Trust put up there
Was the tower even going to be built in an actual viewplane?

This makes me sooooo angry!!!! They are way to confident and smug! I can't get over how irritating it is!

The site is not covered by any viewplanes to begin with. And if you ask me it worked really well with the heritage buildings. No, it wasn't an exact replication but a modern spin on the old.

Yeah, especially the base. It looked pretty similar to the Mariott (which it clashes with?) from what I could tell from the sketches.

I think this is downright silly. I mean, heritage type organizations certainly have a credible role to play in preserving existing historic/heritage buildings, but I don't think it's any of their business what new buildings are going to be built once it's decided that an existing will be demolished. If the present Midtown Tavern is going to be torn down and they aren't opposing that, they shouldn't care how tall the new building is going to be. That should be left to council and residents to decide.

From the renderings I saw on tv, I'd say the proposals are quite appealing. Obviously having a modern highrise where there were previously only old buildings would take some getting used to, but all major changes require adjustment, and that doesn't make them bad. The character of the area would have been altered, and that's a good thing. It would have injected some vitality and energy into the area.

This, from today's herald (letter to editor)



Heritage watchdogs

From concern to fright. The mayor and councillors, architects, designers and developers still don’t get it. Have they no vision? Can they not develop property that reflects the things that make Halifax/Dartmouth historically unique? Our future is in our past.

The citizenry of Halifax/Dartmouth hold our history and what remains of it in high regard. Congratulations to those heritage groups and their recent success with the Midtown Tavern site.

But, who in heaven’s name conceived and approved the two new condo units in downtown Dartmouth at the former Starr Manufacturing site and close by at the corner on Portland Street? With all that history to look back on and inspire the designers and the city’s elected few, they have put in place the ordinary. I’m sure to be as underwhelmed by the development of the adjacent Greenvale school property.

It appears, despite the recent town hall-type meetings on the future development of our region, that our heritage groups will have to continue to be vigilant and aggressive.



At first I thought he was being sarcastic. Sadly, I was probably wrong.

([edit]: from today's herald)

Stuck in the past

The toppling of the Midtown tower is yet another failure to the HRM. The social-conservative citizens have won another war based primarily on the historical value of our city. Yes, our history is important, but our future should not be entirely dependent on it.

Again, the argument that “Halifax shouldn’t become another Toronto” has been voiced. I believe tourists come here partly to see our historical landmarks, but also to experience our culture and people. Toronto’s forward thinking could never be matched here with our current values. While we don’t want to become a “cookie cutter version” of Toronto, living in the past is equally ignorant.

Further, with such a strong population of university students, this city should soon shift its focus from satisfying the elder generations who seek to see as little change in their city as possible. We should be contemplating how to keep these students here to work, instead of focusing on immigration.

To those who have won this battle, I congratulate you. To the younger generation of this city, please, let us view their victory as a defeat in the war of forward thinking. It is up to us to become as engaged in local politics as those who believe the only value in our city is its history.

This is as much our city as theirs and it is time for us to accept our portion of the responsibility to guide it into the future. Get involved, or they’ll have us all wearing kilts and playing bagpipes to show off to tourists forever!

^ That pretty much sums up my feelings in this whole thing.