Overview
The Regional Plan is the most important land use planning document for the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). The Regional Plan sets the vision and rules for how and where HRM will grow over the next decade and beyond — including how we protect nature, build housing, improve transit services, support a strong regional food system, expand energy systems and invest in complete communities.
The final draft of the updated plan was released on May 28, 2025. It’s publicly available here. Halifax Regional Council started its first reading of the Regional Plan on June 3, which continued on June 10. A public hearing about the plan is projected for Thursday, June 19 and Friday, June 20.
Unfortunately, the final draft of the Regional Plan shows how deeply the Houston government has interfered in municipal planning authority. The plan reflects a pattern of inappropriate and unjust provincial overreach into our municipal affairs, most clearly seen through the forced inclusion of Special Planning Areas and Minimum Planning Requirements.
This is a dangerous direction. The HRM needs more housing to tackle the housing crisis, but it needs to be affordable, accessible and built responsibly. These top-down mandates allow sprawling development that serves developer profits — not the needs of our communities, ecosystems or future generations. The Province is building cities we don’t want to live in — and they’re using the Regional Plan to do it.
The Ecology Action Centre is calling on council to stand up to the Province for the HRM, and we urge residents to speak at the public hearing and write to their councillors and MLAs, demanding that the municipality defend its ability to plan responsibly, equitably and sustainably.
Our three main issues with the Regional Plan are:
- Provincial overreach into our municipal affairs, forcing us to develop greenspaces into housing that costs us more, increases traffic and destroys greenspaces that have value for ecological and recreational use.
- This is showing up in the Regional Plan through the inclusion of the Province’s “Special Planning Areas” and “Minimum Planning Requirements”
- The use of terms “relax” and “reasonable” when discussing reasons for overriding the protective 30-metre buffer for wetlands, watercourses and our coast, essentially rendering this buffer pointless. These terms should be taken out, or at the very least clearly defined.
- The plan proposes expanding the Urban Service Boundary for the wrong reasons. The Boundary should only be extended in order to provide services to existing communities, not as an excuse to expand urban sprawl before hitting housing density targets within the current boundary.
Special Planning Areas
Special Planning Areas are areas where the Province has taken over local planning, allowing the Minister of Growth and Development and the Provincial Special Planning Task Force to override community consultation and HRM’s own planning practices to fast-track development.
The enforcement of these Special Planning Areas is now incorporated into the Regional Plan — including two areas of significant concern due to their environmental value, ecological functions and high recreational use:
- Sandy Lake
- Highway 102 West Corridor (Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area)
These Special Planning Areas fall within the aspirational boundaries of the parks, and share waterways, habitats, trail networks and community access points with them.
Their ecosystems provide:
- Carbon storage
- Flood and fire mitigation
- Air and water filtration
- Vital biodiversity corridors for wildlife to migrate, breed and feed
- Cultural and recreational value
Placing sprawling residential subdivisions in these areas directly undermines the best interests of our communities and sacrifices natural infrastructure that supports our climate resilience. These are not appropriate sites for development, and their inclusion in the Regional Plan — after the Province forcibly removed local control — shows how provincial overreach is reshaping HRM without resident input or environmental foresight.
Minimum Planning Requirements
The Minimum Planning Requirements are another form of provincial overreach. These are rules the Province set and is now forcing HRM to adopt in the Regional Plan. They serve a developer-first agenda that prioritizes speed and sprawl over sustainability, affordability and livability.
The Minimum Planning Requirements:
- Approve development in locations that do not align with HRM’s climate, land use or mobility goals.
- Require HRM to accept sprawling subdivisions even when subdivisions lack transit, services or community infrastructure. Building in these unserviced areas costs far more than developing in already serviced areas, which means we, the taxpayers, will suffer.
- Erase the municipality’s ability to guide growth toward existing serviced areas
We are in a housing crisis, and development will need to happen to address it. But houses alone are not a solution: we need complete communities that have access to transit, water, sewer and community services. Building sprawling developments of housing does nothing to address community needs.
This is not responsible planning — it is the offloading of provincial housing pressure onto HRM. These mandates sideline local voices and lock HRM into an unsustainable growth model that will increase taxes, emissions and infrastructure costs.
30-Metre Buffer for Coasts, Watercourses and Wetlands
The inclusion of a 30-metre buffer around wetlands, watercourses and coastal areas is a long-fought win for the environment and a key piece of the Halifax Green Network Plan. This is good work that we are pleased to see included in the Regional Plan.
Initially, this win was immediately undermined by language that allows those protections to be "relaxed" or bypassed through vague exemptions when a development is deemed "reasonable." These terms are not defined. They provide no objective standard or limitations. Worse, Development Agreements — which developers must pursue to override the buffer — were not required to be public, reviewed by council or bound by transparent criteria.
After advocacy from the EAC and community groups, HRM council has made important changes to the Plan that address these issues. Buffer-specific policies, EN-43 and EN-53, are now being amended to clarify that development agreements requesting to override the 30-metre buffer may only be considered if a water resources engineer or similarly qualified professional has provided a report. Development agreements requesting to bypass this buffer will also need to be approved by council, not just a development officer.
We are glad that council has worked to clarify these important policies that safeguard our municipal water, wetlands and coasts. However, whether the language around “reasonable” and “relaxed” will be fully removed or defined remains to be seen.
We also are concerned that this new 30-metre buffer will only apply to lots established after 2006. Any lots that have yet to be developed, regardless of the year established, should have to comply with the new 30m buffer so that our municipality’s water is adequately protected for communities and the environment.
While we applaud council’s amendments, we can still do better.
We are calling on council to:
- Strike the terms “reasonable” and “relaxed” as they relate to the 30-metre wetlands, watercourse and coastal buffers from the Regional Plan
- Apply the 30-metre buffer to all lots that are yet to be approved for development, not just those established before 2006
Water is integral to the health and wellbeing of our communities and environment – let’s protect it.
Using the Urban Service Boundary as an Excuse to Expand Urban Sprawl
The Urban Service Boundary (USB) defines where HRM will extend municipal services like water, sewer and transit. It currently includes the Regional Centre and certain surrounding suburban communities. The Regional Plan leaves the USB open for future expansion of urban development — even though much of the land inside this boundary remains undeveloped or underutilized. The USB should only be extended in order to provide services to existing communities, not as an excuse to expand urban sprawl before hitting housing density targets within the current boundary.
Expanding the Urban Service Boundary for development would:
- Sprawl development into unserviced rural land
- Increase traffic congestion and emissions
- Raise taxes for HRM residents and drain public funds away from existing infrastructure and communities
Meanwhile, the plan sets a 75 per cent growth target for the Urban Area. This target for increasing housing infrastructure in our already serviced areas must be achieved before we consider development outside of this boundary. This is more affordable, more accessible and safeguards green space.
We urge council to:
- Only expand the USB in order to provide services to existing communities, especially rural and suburban communities still waiting for infrastructure investments
- Prioritize housing within the current USB in order to hit our 75 per cent growth target
This is how we make smart, community-led decisions — by planning for long-term livability and resilience.
In Summary
The final draft of the Regional Plan reflects the Houston government’s heavy hand — not the public will. It allows for low-density sprawl, environmental rollbacks and a future where private developers shape HRM more than public process.
We urge council to:
- Oppose the inclusion of inappropriate Special Planning Areas
- Reject the sprawl-driven Minimum Planning Requirements
- Only extend the USB to provide services to existing communities — not as a catalyst for irresponsible urban sprawl
Let’s build a Regional Plan that reflects the city we want — not the one the Houston government is forcing on us.