Baptiste, Isaac "Land Use Management Through Development Agreement The Case of the City of Halifax"

The last few decades witnessed dramatic changes in the contemporary planning movement. A noticeable change is the fact that the planning process now embraces all sectors - physical, economic and social - of community development, instead of its previously narrow land use focus - orderliness and accessibility. Accordingly. the land use control component of tile planning process had to be modified to facilitate realization of the many new objectives - for example, heritage preservation, conservation, social equity, economic viability and efficiency. This resulted in the development of a wide range of flexible land use control techniques to complement more prescriptive traditional zoning. They are designed to allow the development application approving authority to judge a proposal on its merit and to exercise discretion - choose among alternatives - at the decision-making stage. The Development Agreement or Contract Zoning is one of the many new flexible land use control techniques.

Municipalities in Nova Scotia are authorized to use the development agreement in accordance with enabling legislation since 1969. The objectives are to encourage innovations in design and construction and to provide Councils with additional power to respond to environmental, social and economic goals within their respective communities.

The City of Halifax has been using the development agreement in its current format since 1978, for interim development control and to encourage well planned and designed developments.

This study revealed that the lack of alternative flexible land use control techniques causes the City to make increasing use of the development agreement in situations where a less "costly" technique would be as appropriate. The City's discretionary land use control system lacks adequate regulatory planning tools to facilitate negotiating and decision-making; there is less certainty in the system than the enabling legislation requires, hence these weaknesses contribute to cost increases for all parties concerned. The current applicaton review procedure does not ensure that individual decision-makers will be aware of all substantial legitimate concerns with regard to a proposal, before decisions are made. Policies and guidelines are not strictly applied, consequently, confrontations arise among the parties concerned; and the use of the development agreement under current conditions adversely affects the City's long-range planning program.

In the light of the above, the paper recommends that (a) more selective use of the development agreement; (b) the development of more explicit policies, urban design guidelines and other supporting planning tools for regulatory purposes; (c) establishment of a Staff Review Committee, and (d) a Design Review Panel, and (e) increasing the role of the Planning Advisory Committee in the application review process would make the City's discretionary land use control system more efficient and effective.

Atlantic Planners Institute

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This document was last modified on January 31, 2001.