The big development on Almon Street has been approved by Halifax and West Community Council.

This was the outcome of an April 27th meeting of the Halifax and West Community Council.  Residents in the area may have noticed work on the parking garage has already started but the developer was allowed to start working as long as nothing went above 0.6 metres.

If this development had been rejected the work would have been a waste of time and money. They were ordered to stop doing some of the work on the parking garage because of a “miscommunication” that resulted in the work exceeding that height requirement. 

The developer said they want to provide affordable units and have hired a firm to apply for funding from the CMHC affordable housing program.

Although the general guideline for affordability is no more than 30 per cent of household income should go to housing (housing being all housing costs, rent, heat, electricity, water) CMHC affordable housing standards are 30 percentile or below the current market rate for equivalent units.

It’s not tied to income. Which means for a lot of single people, especially single women, CHMC standards are not actually affordable.