The first public engagement session kicked off at St. Andrews Church Hall on Tuesday, April 19th 2016.  It was a good turnout with approximately 80 people in attendance. After showing a video to introduce the project, Louie Lawen, President of Dexel opened the evening by welcoming everyone and thanking them for attending.
 
The purpose of the event is to gather information from the public that will help the developer and architects design the public spaces, streetscapes and form of the development.  This is a developer led engagement not a HRM engagement. The developer wanted to hear back from the public before they start designing instead of after; this is different from the usual process.
 
Lead facilitator, Tim Merry, acknowledged the elephants in the room around height and developer cynicism. He asked people not to hold back and bring their opinion but don’t be attached that it's the only opinion that matters.

A presentation was given by architect, Chris Crawford from Ekistics on the city and neighbourhood context regarding the development. Nick Lopresti, an architect with Dexel also  highlighted elements that Dexel was looking for feedback on.  

Brent Toderliane an urban planner from Vancouver and consultant with the project spoke to how he will be following the project and holding it to a high standard. He reviewed slides on how he will assess the project for good urban design strategies.
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Click on the slides below to review the presentation. Scroll down to see the outcomes of the public engagement and direct transcripts of the information gathered from the tables.

​To begin the public engagement, it was important to meet with key stakeholders to review the presentation and engagement process. Three stakeholder sessions were held on April 7 & 8, 2016 with technical experts and planners, neighbours and associations in the area.  

Stakeholders attending represented HRM, NS Power, Dalhousie, Heritage Trust, Ecology Action Centre, Halifax Alliance, The Planning and Design Centre, The Spring Garden Business Association, The Heart & Stroke Foundation, Walk-N-Roll, and neighbours to the proposed development. 

An overview of the public engagement presentation was given along with a presentation on the actual engagement process.  We asked stakeholders what questions will the public have and what more information do we need to share with them? They gave us the following feedback.