HRM’s Peninsula Community Council voted Monday night in favour of Dalhousie’s rezoning application for the new LeMarchant Street Mixed-Use Building.
The building is slated to be constructed on six lots, four of which needed to be rezoned for the project to move ahead. While both U-1 Low Density University and U-2 High-Density University zones permit residential accommodation for university students as well as a variety of other university-related uses, buildings on U-1 zones are restricted to a height limit of 35 feet. As the design for the proposed LeMarchant Street Mixed-use Building is above 55 feet, it is necessary to rezone the property to the higher density zone, U-2.
A public hearing was held on December 12 and council deferred the decision until last night’s meeting. The decision is subject to a two-week appeal process. During this time Dalhousie will continue site preparations for the construction of the new seven-story building.
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The mixed-use building will feature two floors of student service space including health and counseling services, a multi-faith room, black and international student centres, student recruitment and five floors of residence space, home to 326 students.
“We’re really pleased with council’s decision, as this will enable us to construct the new facility and meet our target of opening for September 2013,” explains Jeff Lamb, assistant vice-president, Facilities Management. “Surface level excavation will begin in the next week, as we continue with site preparations. Following the two-week appeal period, we’ll apply for a building permit and at that time will do pre-construction inspections of homes near the construction site.”
Dalhousie is finalizing details on a public design charrette to be held later in January. The facilitated workshop will include members from the community, students, faculty, staff and members of the design team and will focus on the landscaping and campus boundary of the south side of the campus from the arena to Risley Hall.
The construction schedule (tentative) and project updates, including minutes from public meetings are all available on dal.ca/campusplan. An email distribution list for notices has been created. Sign up by emailing communications.marketing@dal.ca