Upper Tantallon neighbourhood where wildfire began getting new emergency exit

Nearly two years after the dramatic wildfire in Upper Tantallon, Halifax council has approved a new emergency exit to help people in the neighbourhood where the blaze began.

On Tuesday, Halifax regional council approved a 500-metre emergency egress route between the southwest edge of Westwood Hills and Highway 103.

A staff report said the city will now start acquiring land and planning the route, which should open in 2026.

"I wish like crazy I could snap my fingers and make it happen. Unfortunately, that's not the way it works," area Coun. Nancy Hartling told reporters outside the meeting.

Like the two emergency exits built immediately after the fire from the neighbouring Haliburton Hills and Highland Park subdivisions, the route from Westwood Boulevard will be controlled by a locked gate that the city can open when needed.

While Westwood Hills technically has two exits, they are very close to each other on Hammonds Plains Road, which could lead to bottlenecks and delays.

That lack of egress became a huge issue during the May 2023 wildfire, which destroyed 150 homes in Upper Tantallon and Hammonds Plains. Hundreds of people were caught in long lines of traffic in the area, with some people driving through smoke and walls of flame.

The new route is at the southwest corner of the neighbourhood, so municipal staff said Tuesday they recognize that residents at the back half of the subdivision would still be vulnerable.

To address that gap, staff will now consult with residents about whether to build another emergency exit, or a full new road, between Westwood Hills and Highland Park or Upper Hammonds Plains.

Hartling said that community engagement is key because Westwood residents feel they have been "left in the dark" through the process so far.

"We just took a great first step. The second step still needs to happen. And you know, we as a council need to be sure that we hold ourselves accountable here … the other half needs to happen in co-ordination with community," Hartling said.

"Having said that, time is of the essence, right? Every day is a day too long."

Some residents have long pushed for an egress route off Wright Lake Run at the north part of the subdivision. It would cross Nova Scotia Power lands and use logging roads through forested areas.

But Mike Connors, manager of transportation planning, told council Tuesday that four-kilometre option was too long and unsafe.

"The shorter the egress route, the better," Connors said.

"In the wildfire type of situation where things are changing and the winds blow in different directions, you know it's a risk to send people through woods like that."

Council also directed staff to complete a study of subdivisions with egress issues across the municipality this year.

They will also create a strategy prioritizing how to fix those problems, and how much it will cost, while considering how to leverage infrastructure in new projects like the wind farm being built at Melvin Lake. The farm is north of Westwood Hills and Upper Hammonds Plains, and will stretch into Hants County.