Roberts, Glenn "A Public Open Space Policy Proposal for the Halifax Peninsula"

As urban centres throughout North (America continue to expand and grow, established land uses within the urban environment are subjected to increasing levels of development pressures from competing uses. This is particularly true of public open space, which is often viewed as a "luxury", and which must continually compete with residential, commercial and industrial land uses in our expanding urban centres. As a result, policies dealing with the protection and management of existing public open space, and the acquisition of additional public open space often get overlooked or given little consideration when a city draws up its long range development plans, Halifax is such a city. The City's land use planning documents, the Municipal Development Plan, the Subdivision Regulations and Bylaw, and the Land Use Bylaw - all lack concise and meaningful policy directives for the protection and management of public open space, and the acquisition of additional public open space for the City of Halifax.

The following thesis is an attempt to rectify this problem by proposing a public open space policy for, the Halifax Peninsula. While the scope of this thesis is limited to the Halifax Peninsula, many of the policy recommendations are, nonetheless, applicable to public open space policy planning for The entire Metropolitan area.

The thesis study was undertaken in three phases. Phase I consisted of a literature review of articles, periodicals, and books relevant to The topic of public open space policy. Also included was a review of selected public open space policy documents from a number of Canadian municipalities. From this literature review, information concerning the definition of public open space, its characteristics, how it is classified, its functions in an urban setting, what sort of standards are used and how it can be protected and preserved was gathered to serve as an information base.

Phase 11 consisted of an examination of the history of public open space in Halifax from its founding to the present day. This phase also included a critique of pertinent land-use planning documents - Nova Scotia Planning Act, the Halifax MDP, The Halifax Subdivision Regulations and Bylaw, and the Halifax Land Use Bylaw in Terms of their policy content towards public open space Halifax Peninsula. The critique substantiated the premise thesis - i.e. there is a lack of clear and meaningful policies for, public open space in the City. An inventory of existing public open space on the Halifax Peninsula indicated an inadequate supply of public open space for the number of residents living on The Peninsula.

Based on the information gathered in Phase 1 & 11, a public open space policy proposal was developed in Phase III of the study. The need of such a policy, the benefits to be derived from a separate "Public Open Space" land-use category and a city-wide public open space network serve to lay the groundwork for the public open space policy suggestions and implementation recommendations which form the balance of the thesis. The policies proposed, along with the implementation recommendations, were formulated with the intention of providing a concise and effective means of ensuring the protection and management of existing public open space, and providing the means to acquire additional public open space on The Halifax Peninsula for The enjoyment and benefit of not only this generation, but generations to come.

Atlantic Planners Institute

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This document was last modified on February 15, 2001.