In My Neighbourhood: Exploring the expanding Timberlea suburb
Just outside Halifax’s urban centre, travelling west on the St. Margaret’s Bay Road, lies the three small suburban neighbourhoods of Beechille, Lakeside, and Timberlea (referred to collectively as BLT, providing neverending delight and sandwich jokes to the students at BLT Elementary). BLT is a transit suburb, though there is little encouragement to actually rely on public transit instead of cars (an issue I will delve deeper into later). Though each neighbourhood spans only a few kilometres each, the communities are nonetheless considered independent areas, and often experience different levels of development despite their close proximity. I live in Timberlea, the last neighbourhood before the Bay Road takes you into the progressively more rural neighbourhoods of Hubley and Tantallon.
Over the last decade, Timberlea has experienced an incredible housing boom, recently aided by the pandemic and accompanying low interest rates, which has transformed the community into one of the hottest and most desirable neighborhoods for first-time homebuyers and single families. Much of this transformation is attributable to one particular development: the Links at Brunello golf course and accompanying Brunello Estates suburb.
Past and Present Developments
Although the Links at Brunello only opened in 2014, the business brought to the community and the accompanying housing development has already had major impacts on the neighbourhood. The Links wrap around my tiny U-shaped subdivision, Timberlea Village, and Brunello Estates is quickly expanding along the Timberlea Village Parkway which connects to Highway 103, leading into the city. In fact, the development has grown so quickly that the most recent Google Earth images only show a fraction of the housing expansion along the Parkway.
In the second photo above, the wooded areas on the left and right of the Parkway no longer exist. In the last two to three years these areas have also been clear cut to make room for Phase Two and Three of Brunello Estates. The demand for housing in this subdivision is very strong; driving along the newly paved roads you can see sold signs along almost every lot. Houses in the new Phases are typically built within two to three months, meaning the population of Timberlea is growing rapidly.
As a long-standing auto/transit-suburb, the vast majority of the new housing in Brunello mirrors the rest of the BLT community: large, single-family homes and rows of townhouses and duplexes. However, Brunello has also introduced a brand new form of housing to BLT: luxury apartments.
The Nines is Brunello’s newest addition to the subdivision. The first suites were ready to rent in December 2020, and the building offers spacious 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments. Apartments are a very uncommon form of housing in BLT. Before the opening of The Nines, there were only a handful of apartment buildings clustered mostly in Lakeside, however, these buildings are quite old and largely attract older residents and young families who cannot afford homeownership or an apartment in the city.
While the opening of The Nines is likely to attract more young professionals to the BLT community, it also sets a precedent for rental rates. A 1-bedroom apartment in this building rents for $1711 a month, a 2-bedroom ranges between $2080–$2150, and 3-bedroom rents for $3125. If you want to live in the 3-bedroom penthouse, you’ll have to shell out $5500 a month. According to the CMHC’s 2021 Rental Market Report, the current rental averages in Halifax are $1016, $1255, and $1455, for a 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartment, respectively.
Time will tell what kind of impacts these rental prices will have on existing rentals in the community, or whether this complex will set a precedent and new demand for more high-end apartments. As construction is still underway for half of The Nines complex, it is still to early to say if there is even enough demand to fill luxury apartments in this area.
Looking to the Future
As with any new development, there are pros and cons. As stated at the beginning of this piece, the Brunello developments have turned Timberlea, and our sister communities Lakeside and Beechville, into one of the most desirable areas outside the urban core. The average housing price in Halifax overall increased by 19% in the last quarter of 2020, and due to low-interest rates created by the pandemic, Nova Scotia saw an increase in inter-provincial moves, with more new residents arriving from Ontario and British Columbia.
The Nova Scotia Association of Realtors reports that the average price of a house in the Tantallon/Timberlea/Peggy’s Cove area increased from $314,511 in 2019 to $368,468 in 2020. Timberlea Village in particular, due to its placement in the centre of the golf course, has experienced a boom in housing prices. Several of my neighbours decided to sell their homes last year, many of them older couples like my parents, ready to downsize. Every single home has sold in less than a week of being on the market, usually for tens of thousands of dollars above asking. In fact, young families are so eager to find a house in our neighbourhood that real estate agents can often been seen photographing houses to approach owners about private sales.
It’s also hard to say what impact The Nines might have on the future of the rental market. Will the introduction of luxury apartments encourage other developers to build other apartment complexes throughout the community? A look at the Halifax Regional Municipality’s zoning plan for BLT doesn’t hold a lot of promise. The vast majority of lands are zoned for single-unit, two-unit, and townhouse dwellings, and it does not appear as if any areas are zoned to allow for multi-unit dwellings. Time will tell how much of an impact Brunello’s developments have on future planning decisions.
Other Community Impacts
Public Transit
While BLT is technically a transit-suburb, serviced by two bus routes, the current transit infrastructure is not popular with many residents and is not equipped to efficiently transport more people if enough new residents without cars move in to the community. As a suburban community with little local business, nearly all residents travel into Halifax or other surrounding areas for work. Despite this, current transit infrastructure does little to incentivize the use of public transit over automobiles.
BLT is serviced by two bus routes, the 21, a regular route which runs throughout the entire day (5am to midnight), and the 123, an “express route” which travels downtown but only operates during the morning and evening rush hours.
In 2018, Halifax Transit launched a standard redesign of services to reflect updated transit ridership and customer feedback from previous years. Despite the high numbers of BLT residents travelling into the city each day for work, service was actually decreased to BLT through the 21 line, decreasing service between 10am and 3pm to once an hour, instead of every half hour as is it at other times of the day. The 123 schedule remained unchanged, however, during the evening rush hour passengers may only take the route from downtown to Timberlea, but cannot travel from Timberlea to downtown.
Furthermore, travel times between our suburbs and the downtown core can take upwards of 40 minutes to an hour by bus, compared to auto transit times as little as 20 to 30 minutes depending on time of day. Combined with the recent decreases in service times, this provides more incentive for residents to rely on cars instead of public transit. As the BLT population continues to grow, and more young families and their children trend age demographics downward, I would expect demands for better transit service will increase to support sustainable living practices.
Business Growth
Another impact from the Brunello developments is the growth of small businesses and other commercial amenities. Along with the golf course and housing development, Brunello also made a deal with Sobeys and Petro Canada to be the first businesses in a new commercial centre south of the course. Construction on the Sobeys completed in 2019 and the store opened in November. Construction has not yet begun on the Petro Canada gas station, but word on the street is that a Dollarama is the next business being built.
Other areas of new business growth are also clustered around the Timberlea Village Parkway and Brunello. A small complex was recently built by the owners of our local fruit and vegetable market, and neighbouring lots which have sat empty and undeveloped for upwards of ten years are finally being purchased. Aside from the Sobeys, much of this business growth has been small, independent businesses.
Supporting Future Growth
I’ve argued in past blog posts that municipalities and regional government need to be focusing more attention on suburban areas to ensure resources are not disproportionately directed at urban cores. BLT, and Timberlea specifically, is a prime example of an area that is flying under the radar of the Halifax Regional Municipality. As a comfortably middle class community, which is quickly edging towards upper-middle, BLT has not needed the same level of attention as other low-income or rural areas within the HRM.
Now, however, in the face of such rapid growth, HRM would be wise to rethink how suburban areas like BLT and elsewhere are being developed to ensure these neighbourhoods are growing sustainably and modernly. Public transit infrastructure investment in particular is a necessity for these areas to encourage not only environmentally friendly practices, but also consumption of key municipal services.
Another question I did not explore in this piece is education infrastructure. New housing is being built all over BLT, and young families and parents are the main demographic moving in. The schools in our neighbourhoods are not equipped to serve a bigger student body, and our elementary schools themselves are quite old. In the past year Nova Scotia also launched it’s pre-primary program for 4-year old students, causing further strain on schools to find space for the influx of new students. Community planning will have to confront this issue sooner than later to keep our schools safe.
Currently, housing growth in BLT is far outpacing growth in other areas of social infrastructure. There is little discussion in the news media or from local politicians about the potential impacts of these planning decisions in the near future. In last week’s Nova Scotia Liberal party leadership election, Ian Rankin (MLA for Timberlea-Prospect and lifelong Timberlea resident) took over the the Premiership from retiring Stephen McNeil. My hope is that Mr. Rankin can use his expertise as a Timberlea resident to work with Halifax Mayor Mike Savage and advocate for smarter planning of Halifax’s suburbs.
