The government of Nova Scotia announced that it is making changes to the Halifax Regional Municipality’s charter to further accelerate the construction of new residential areas.

“We are introducing new regulations to reduce barriers and create more opportunities for housing in the HRM,” John Lohr, minister of municipal affairs and housing, said in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.

The new changes include the following changes to the provisions on the minimum planning requirements of the HRM Charter:

• Prefabricated houses, such as converted shipping containers, will in future be permitted in all residential areas.
• In most zones, residential use is permitted where appropriate.
• In the future, there will no longer be any specific requirements for on-site parking spaces for new buildings in the “urban supply area”.
• The construction of temporary housing is permitted in all zones to enable workers working on construction sites to live near or on the construction site during their deployment.

The province is also changing regulations to push the city to adopt a secondary municipal planning strategy for suburban areas by “no later than” January 31, 2025, which Lohr said is particularly important.

“This has delayed development in incredibly important suburban areas and the implementation of this community planning strategy will enable this to be taken forward in a way that has not been possible before,” he said.

Another change was the city is obliged to adopt a statute to enable the implementation of a trusted partner program to allow qualified developers to accelerate projects. Lohr said no deadline has been set for the adoption of this regulation as the program will take time to develop.

According to Lohr, many of the new regulations come as part of a independent report by Deloitte It recommended changes, including promoting a suburban plan and eliminating minimum parking requirements for new buildings.

They follow the controversial passing from Bill 329 in 2023, which angered Halifax Mayor Mike Savage and other city councillors by giving Lohr the power to approve development projects throughout the municipality.

City prepares report, cannot meet schedule deadline

The municipality said in a statement that it was aware of the likely announcement of this regulation and that it would prepare a report on the changes to submit to the regional council.

“Staff will assess the resource impacts of the regulations to understand and manage any short- to medium-term impacts on operations,” the city said in an email.

However, the deadline for submitting a new suburban plan is “not feasible within this time frame,” the municipality said.

The city said it would instead provide an update on ongoing work on the plan to “show progress.”

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