{"id":8231,"date":"2025-08-12T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/?p=8231"},"modified":"2025-08-13T20:39:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T00:39:22","slug":"ns-provincial-government-rejects-halifaxs-updates-to-its-regional-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/?p=8231","title":{"rendered":"NS Provincial government rejects Halifax’s updates to its Regional Plan 12Aug2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>From Regional Plan<\/a> on HRM website:<\/p>\n

On Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, the Halifax Regional Municipality received a letter<\/a> from the Province of Nova Scotia\u2019s Minister of Municipal Affairs in response to the municipality\u2019s submission of the updated Regional Plan refusing the approval of the documents.<\/em><\/p>\n

Moving forward, this means that the current 2014 Regional Plan<\/a>, last amended in May 2025, remains in effect, as the new proposed amendments have not been approved by the province. Over the coming weeks, municipal staff will re-engage with the province to determine the next steps on the planning process and ensure the Regional Plan is updated in a way that fulfills the municipality\u2019s obligations under provincial legislation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From The Letter:<\/p>\n

While we were encouraged to see some proposals that would work towards improving the <\/em>housing situation in the region, left as-is, they didn\u2019t go far enough. Beyond that, the document<\/em>
\nincluded many proposals that appear intentionally designed to impede housing.<\/em><\/p>\n

For example:<\/em>
\n\u2022 Clauses EN-34, 40, 47: Changing setbacks from 20 to 30 metres.<\/em>
\n\u2022 Clause EN-70: Requiring EV-ready parking spaces.<\/em>
\n\u2022 Minimal changes in zoning to allow more people to build as-of-right.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is unfortunate and, as a result after careful consideration and a thorough review, I simply <\/em>cannot accept the Plan as submitted and must therefore refuse to approve the Plan.<\/em><\/p>\n

….Sincerely,
\nHonourable John Lohr,
\nMinister of Municipal Affairs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also view Province rejects Halifax regional plan, says wetland setbacks ‘impede’ housing<\/a> by Haley Ryan \u00b7 CBC News, Aug 11, 2025 “…The minister said he was specifically concerned about new requirements for outlets that can accommodate electric-vehicle chargers in new homes or apartments, and increasing setbacks around watercourses and wetlands to 30 metres from 20. “If developers can’t figure out how to do a development that’s not 30 metres away from a lake or wetland, well then we don’t want those developments,” Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini said Monday. “The lakes are such a precious place. Why would we threaten that?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Regional Plan on HRM website: On Friday, Aug. 8, 2025, the Halifax Regional Municipality received a letter from the Province of Nova Scotia\u2019s Minister of Municipal Affairs in response to the municipality\u2019s submission of the updated Regional Plan refusing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15,27,32,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-conservation","category-halifax-green-network-plan","category-halifax-regional-municipality","category-regional-plan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8231"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8240,"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8231\/revisions\/8240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backlandscoalition.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}