Hello folks,
Our tenth council meeting of the year was held on Tuesday, 27 May. The full meeting agenda, reports and video recording are linked below.
Halifax Regional Council – May 27, 2025
Most council members are headed to Ottawa today for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Annual Conference and Trade Show 2025 I’m on the train now for the way there, and I’ll be flying home Sunday afternoon. I’m looking forward to learning from others, spending time with my colleagues and hopefully hearing an address from our new Prime Minister!
I hope that you get out to enjoy some sunshine again today. It brought me such joy to see people enjoying their lunch break in Grand Parade yesterday.
Here are the District 7 highlights from yesterday’s meeting:
15.1.2 Update on Regulation of Short-Term Rentals
That Halifax Regional Council:
1. Maintain the current Development Permit requirements for Short-Term Rentals;
2. Maintain the current regulatory approach to Short-Term Rentals of secondary units; and
3. Direct the Chief Administrative Officer to develop a proactive enforcement program for Short-Term Rentals as outlined in the Discussion section of the staff report dated April 3, 2025.”
During the election campaign and more recently I heard from a few residents that said they would like to rent their second units to students during the post-secondary school year, and then to visitors in the summer months. This is currently not allowed. I thought that this combo makes sense as it provides student housing and allows homeowners to earn an income from a variety of sources as costs rise. So, after watching this presentation at CPED (45:04 mark), meeting with staff and discussions with a few councillors, I decided to move an amendment to the main motion:
“That Halifax Regional Council direct the Chief Administrative Officer to prepare a staff report that considers additional options for short-term rentals of secondary suites and second units in residential areas in the urban area. The report should consider:
- Opportunities to permit short-term rentals close to universities and colleges in residential areas in the summer months if they are rented as long-term rentals September to April inclusive;
- Any required amendments to municipal planning strategies or land use by-laws or licensing solutions;
- Potential impacts on housing supply including data to inform decision making”
This amendment passed 15-1. I voted Yes.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this idea. (My thought is this would be for situations where the owner host is on site.) We’ll see what staff suggest, or if this would be too complex to enforce etc. We don’t have data to know if the current STR rules have created more long-term housing options or not, which makes it hard for me to judge if the current status quo is a good balance between housing availability and property rights or not.
(Councillor Deagle Gammon also had an amendment:
“That Halifax Regional Council direct the Chief Administrative Officer to draft amendments to the Planning District 14 & 17 Land Use By-law to permit one unit per lot to be used a short-term rental, to be included in the Regional Plan Phase 4 package of amendments.”
This amendment passed unanimously.)
This overall motion passed 15-1. I voted Yes.
“Motion:
That Halifax Regional Council:
1. Approve an unbudgeted transfer of $200,000 (net HST included) from CP200001 Park Recapitalization to CB210020 PR – Halifax Common Pool Recon. and,
2. Award RFP 2024-0662, Halifax Commons Playground Request for Proposals (RFP), to the highest scoring proponent, Turf Masters Landscaping Ltd., for $1,042,339 (net HST included) with funding from CB210020 PR Halifax Common Pool Recon., as outlined in the Financial Implications section of the staff report dated March 14, 2025.”
We are getting closer to a new playground being installed at the Commons again!
The additional expense is needed to cover the costs of managing the extra soil on site than was required for the playground base. It had to be moved to another area on the Common, which was the most cost effective solution and per the Halifax Common Master Plan. The cost to build the base and move and reshape the surplus soil was about $220K more than originally estimated. This cost increase approval will allow the tender to be awarded and the work of building the playground to proceeed.
This motion passed on the consent agenda.