'A blank slate': Affordable housing experts to help guide Shannon Park redevelopment

The Crown corporation redeveloping a former military site on the Dartmouth waterfront into a neighbourhood with 3,000 residential units has selected a group of affordable housing experts to help guide the work. 

Canada Lands, which acquired ownership of Shannon Park a decade ago, has promised that the redevelopment of the 34-hectare property will include 20 per cent affordable units.

This means around 600 homes in the new mixed-use community will be earmarked as affordable, forever. 

The new advisory panel will make recommendations for the creation of these units. Curtis Whiley, one of the advisory board members, said this work is critical. 

"Our housing precarity in Nova Scotia, in particular, is dire," said Whiley, founder of the Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust. 

"And so when there's developments that are being proposed of this nature, I think it's so important that developers ... consider what affordable housing looks like."

The advisory committee is made up of 10 volunteers with experience researching, designing, delivering or managing affordable housing in the province. It will meet for the first time in October, and is expected to continue meeting for eight months. 

Construction expected fall 2025

The demolition of military housing in Shannon Park — an area the size of 63 football fields — was finished in 2017, although an elementary school remains. Last year, the Halifax Regional Municipality approved a permanent housing development on site that will also include commercial space, a transit hub and two large parks.

"Canada Lands puts the infrastructure in, so we'll put in the new services, new streets, new sidewalks, new parks, and then select non-profit and private sector, for-profit builder partners," said Heather Chisholm, the corporation's director of real estate for the Atlantic region.

Chisholm said Canada Lands is now working with the municipality to get the required approval to subdivide the property, and will then sell off parcels of land to developers. She expects construction to start in the fall of 2025. 

She said the corporation will prioritize working with non-profits when it comes to building the affordable housing component of the project. 

'A blank slate'

Miia Suokonautio, another one of the advisory committee members, told CBC Nova Scotia News at 6 that opportunities to help create this much affordable housing don't come along every day. 

"It's a bit of a blank slate, a very rare and precious thing because it's land that's quite central and it's big enough that you can dream big," said Suokonautio, the executive director of YWCA Halifax. 

She said she'd like to see deep affordability for rent, in the $700 range for individuals and low-$1,000 range for families.

Whiley said he will be advocating for community-led ownership, like a co-operative or a land trust.  

"So people are really involved and have autonomy over the spaces that they live, and they're able to work together to sustain and grow the affordable housing that they have," he said. 

Canada Lands said it will secure long-term legal agreements and register them in title, which ensures the affordability requirements are respected.

Shannon Park had previously been proposed by the federal government as a location for temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness, but Nova Scotia's minister of community services said Wednesday that no deal has been completed. 

Canada Lands is also working with Millbrook First Nation to develop about four hectares of land on the shoreline in co-operation with the larger Shannon Park development.

Millbrook Chief Bob Gloade has said they are looking to do a mix of residential and commercial development along the waterfront.

The land, which is also known as Turtle Grove or Turtle Cove, was acquired by Indigenous Services Canada and declared reserve land to fulfil an outstanding Mi'kmaw claim dating back before the Halifax Explosion.