East Hants - Corridor Planning - Planning Advisory Committee June 15, 2021 - Municipality of East Hants

East Hants – Corridor Planning
 Planning Advisory Committee June 15, 2021

Introduction
•   Corridor area is a community in transition with a number of developments approved or pending
•   Council began planning for current development influx more than 20 years ago
•   Developer interest remains very strong with increasing property prices and low vacancy rates
•   Through this transition, there is a challenge in balancing the desires of current and future
    residents
•   EH Official Community Plan goal is to accommodate growth in keeping with the wishes of the
    community
•   Information in this presentation is intended to assist councillors when having conversations with
    residents.

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Planning in East Hants
•   Formal planning began in 1968
•   Protect people & property (floodplain regulations, avoid land use conflicts)
•   Protect character of established neighbourhoods
•   Recognize villages as focal points for mixed use small & medium scale business, housing &
    community use
•   Protect natural resources (farmland, water supply areas)
•   Development based on patterns of traditional place making
•   Growth Management Approach since 1990’s

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Traditional Place Making

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Growth Management
•   Serviceable Boundaries
•   Infrastructure charges – development has to pay for itself
•   Comprehensive Development Districts

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Village Cores

•   CV designation & zone
    applies to 7 villages

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Village Cores
 POLICY GOAL OF THE
 VILLAGE CORES
 Council’s goal is to take measures to
 protect the current and future viability
 and identity of the existing village
 commercial centres by ensuring that
 small-scale commercial development is
 focused in the Village Cores Zones. In
 order to enhance the role of the Village
 Core as an essential provider of goods
 and services within the community and to
 protect the existing built and natural
 character of the area.

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Village Cores Continued
•   The Village Core (VC) Zone was established in 1991 and was expanded upon with the
    adoption of the 2000 and 2016 East Hants Official Community Plan.

•   Council established the Village Core (VC) Designation and Zone for the purpose of allowing a
    diverse mixture of retail, service, business, and residential uses in an environment serving
    both pedestrian and vehicle needs.

•   Within this zone, the intent is to develop a community that is aesthetically pleasing and offers
    a socially interactive streetscape that can serve both a local and a community-wide
    population.

•   East Hants has a vested interest in ensuring that small businesses locate in ideal areas that
    will allow the business to flourish. The Village Cores are the ideal places for these businesses.

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Village Cores Continued
•   One important factor in the development of our village cores is to ensure the “Human Scale”
    of these areas is maintained. Human scale refers to “The impression of a building when seen
    in relation to its surroundings, or the size and proportion of parts of a building or its details,
    that relates in a positive way to the visual and physical experience of a pedestrian”.

•   Village Core Zoned lands are unique because all development is required to follow a set of
    design standards.

•   In 2011 East Hants hired Ekistics Planning & Design to complete an analysis on 4 village cores
    and to make recommendations on proposed amendments to the design standards and future
    studies to be completed. During the 2016 Plan Review, Village Core design standards were
    amended based on recommendations from the Village Core Study.

•   Studies have shown that well designed streetscapes lead to greater economic benefits.

•   Improvements to streetscapes not only enhance business on the street, improvements also
    provide a space for social and civic activities, and provide for “indirect” benefits on public
    health, environmental quality and economic prosperity
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Commercial Nodes

•   Focused commercial and mixed
    used development in
    urbanizing area of Corridor.
•   Established residential
    neighbourhoods protected
•   Traffic limited in low density
    residential areas
•   Will enable more successful
    Transit system in future
•   Greater opportunity for
    affordable housing with
    density
•   More efficient use of municipal
    services

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Mixed Use Centre

•   Opportunity area
    identified in 2016
    Plan Review
•   Frontage on Hwy 2
•   Larger lots
•   Some undeveloped
•   Already some multi-
    unit residential &
    commercial uses.

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Mixed Use Centre
Pre 2016 Zoning
R1, R2, IU, C1, C2, C5

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Mixed Use Centre
MC - Mixed Use Centre
Policy Goal
Council’s goal is to foster a consistent, walkable medium-scale growth pattern in Enfield’s growing mixed use
centre. While commercial development is not required in the ground floor of developments in this designation,
developments which have commercial potential at grade as well as dwellings will be permitted to have an
additional storey of development compared to other building types in the area.

In the past, Council has permitted a number of developments in this area by comprehensive development district,
or development agreement. This policy aims to bring predictability, and enact urban design requirements to
enable a walkable, humanscaled, mixed use main street centre.

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Urban Transect

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Creating Sackville Drive?

•   No – development nodes and focused corridors
•   Sackville Dr. was developed with almost 4 km of strip commercial development
•   Sackville Town Centre development was supposed to be the centre of community - failed
•   HRM planning policy changes and investments attempting to urbanize Sackville Dr.

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Economic Development Considerations
 • Core Villages style urban development is 3 to 4 times more valuable per sq m
   vs larger and more auto-centric development
 • Investment in streetscaping increases tax assessment but depends on
   continued private sector investment
 • Creating denser places that people want to spend time in increases
   consumer spending and opportunities for small businesses to locate where
   there is foot traffic
 • Mixed Use Centre is the type of location that the business community is
   looking for

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