News Release
Changing the Look of the Herring Cove Road
(Tuesday, February 8/05)-- The public will be presented with some preliminary ideas on measures that can be taken to transform the Herring Cove Road street scape from one of a major traffic thoroughfare, to one that has a friendly, neighbourhood feel.
Ekistics Planning and Design will be holding a public meeting Thursday night to unveil several concepts for the transformation. The consultants were hired by Halifax Regional Municipality to undertake the “Herring Cove Road Community Planning and Street scape Project”. The study area includes Herring Cove Road and the surrounding area from the Armdale Rotary, through Spryfield, to Roach’s Pond. Senior HRM Planner Richard Harvey leads a special team consisting of staff members from several municipal business units to implement the action plan for the project.
Some of the major recommendations from Ekistics include creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment with the addition of more sidewalks and new trail connections; enhanced transit service; development of a “village centre concept” in the centre of Spryfield; and changes along the length of the road that incorporate landscaping and sufficient width to accommodate bicycles. Other ideas concern land use, signage and improvements to parks and civic areas.
Many of the ideas have been generated from a public survey and various citizen workshops held over the past several months.
“HRM recognizes that many areas along Herring Cove Road have important community functions that should be strengthened,” says Councillor Stephen Adams (District 18 Spryfield-Herring Cove.) “For too long, there hasn’t been a firm sense of what the future holds for this area. Is Herring Cove Road simply a way for people to get somewhere else, or can neighbourhoods and their street scapes along it be improved to provide a new community identity?”
Councillor Adams says economic conditions are changing for the better in this area. There has been a significant amount of new investment and redevelopment within the past few years, including numerous recent business improvements and a new Community Police Office located in the area.
District 17 Councillor Linda Mosher (Purcell’s Cove-Armdale), believes there needs to be a concerted effort to channel the current economic upswing in the area into appropriate public and private investment to help build a better, positive community identity.
Councillor Mosher says “It would be a major accomplishment to establish an overall vision, complete with a series of projects, that we could collectively work on to improve the community.”
When: Thursday, February 10, 2005
Time: 7 p.m.
Where: Captain William Spry Centre.
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Councillor Linda Mosher (902) 476-4117
Councillor Stephen Adams (902) 497-8818
