Official Fredericton, NB projects thread [Archive] - Page 6

kirjtc2

Jun 18, 2008, 3:46 PM

Farmers' market looking for owner
Published Wednesday June 18th, 2008
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN

York County Properties has asked the provincial government if it's interested in acquiring the Boyce Farmers Market, but it hasn't yet received an answer from the province.

"We've contacted the provincial government, as we're required to. That was a couple of months ago," said Ken McGeorge, executive director of York County Properties and York Care Centre.

"They have 90 days to decide if they want to proceed with any kind of arrangement."

McGeorge said he hasn't had a reply, but under legislation that governs uses for the property, the province has the right of first refusal on any proposed sale of the land.

Under the province's Public Works Act, the owner of a property within the protected land has to submit a written plan to government outlining full details of its plan to sell the land.

"We have received a proposal from the owners and under the legislation, the Public Works Act, we have 90 days to consider the proposal and we are taking the time to review this proposal and expect to be in a position to respond by the end of the summer," said Judy Cole, spokeswoman for the provincial Department of Supply and Services.

York County Properties caused a community stir in early spring when it went to a closed-door meeting of city council to see if the city was interested in spending $1.5 million to buy the buildings which house the farmers' market and its land.

The assessed value of the market property in 2008 was $800,500.

The city said no, but community groups and individuals stepped forward to say the market should be saved because of its importance as a tourism icon and the place it holds in Fredericton hearts.

McGeorge has said York Care Centre's board wants to focus its energies on health care, but he said this week that it wants to ensure the market continues to flourish.

"Our board's interest is in seeing it continue in the manner in which it currently is operating," he said.

The market leases its parking lot to the provincial government for employee parking during weekdays, then uses its spaces Saturdays for the morning-long market.

Former mayor Elbridge Wilkins has said York Care Centre shouldn't attach a price tag to the market because it's an asset that the community has already purchased.

Funded originally by a donation from local farmer and lumberman Walter Boyce, public fundraising dollars, federal government financial support and a provincial land grant for the market site have already made the market a community property, Wilkins said.

The Fredericton Sunrise Rotary Club has said it's interested in being a steward of the market property, but won't pay for the site because it agrees with Wilkins.

If it's a matter of finding a board of directors to manage the market property, the Fredericton Rotarians said they'd consider helping out.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 20, 2008, 9:45 AM

Waterloo Row Will Be Closed To Through Traffic June 23 to July 18

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/resources/AffectedRoadsbycontruction.jpg

Fredericton (June 19, 2008) - Waterloo Row, one of the main arteries into and out of the downtown core, will be closed to traffic between Grey Street and Elmcroft Place from June 23 to July 18.

Construction in the area will continue throughout the summer with temporary closures of University Avenue and Alexandra Street scheduled to follow completion of the work on Waterloo Row.

These closures will be necessary to connect City's new water treatment plant, currently under construction on Waterloo Row, to new wells in the Queen Square area and to a city-wide distribution line buried under Morell Park.

The work will be performed by winning bidder Charmac Construction Ltd., with inspection work and some coordination services provided by the system designer, ADI Limited.

"Charmac Construction Ltd. will work with the City to maintain local access as much as practical, and to minimize any service interruptions during the work," said Laurie Corbett, the City's Senior Water & Sewer Engineer.

The City will also take advantage of the opportunity to upgrade sewer piping along the affected routes at the same time.

"The existing pipelines in the area have provided good service since the 1920s and possibly earlier, but this is also a good opportunity to replace them," said Corbett. "We will have barricades and detour signs in place and ask for the public's patience and cooperation as we complete this important water treatment plant project."

The $8-million facility will officially be called the E. John Bliss Water Treatment Plant when it comes into service later this year, providing city residents with an additional 180 litres of drinking water per second, a 45 per cent increase.

For information on street closures in Fredericton during this summer's construction season, log on to the City of Fredericton's website at www.fredericton.ca.

From fredericton.ca

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 20, 2008, 9:48 AM

Bike Lanes Coming to Several City Streets

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/resources/BikeLanesMapB303.jpg

Fredericton (June 19, 2008) - Bike lanes will be coming to several city streets in four areas of the city this summer. The lanes are intended to improve transportation options for city residents and were a recommendation of the City of Fredericton Trails / Bikeways Master Plan. Signage and pavement markings for the lanes will be installed from July 2-11.

The new bike lanes can be divided into two categories: reserved bike lanes featuring signage and pavement markings and signed only routes. Reserved bike lanes will be installed along Douglas Avenue from Maple to Brookside Drive; along Crocket Street from Canada Street to Brown Boulevard, then along Brown Boulevard to Cliffe Street; and, finally on York Street from Priestman Street to Aberdeen Street.

The signed only route will stretch from the RCMP "J" Division on Regent Street to Priestman Street, proceeding along Priestman to Smythe Street, unto Parkside Drive and Greenfields Drive, and then following Prospect Street to Hanwell Road. A signed only bike lane route will also travel along Maple Street from Douglas Avenue to St. Mary's Street, the down St. Mary's Street to Union Street.

"One of the recommendations from the Trails / Bikeways Master Plan was to install some bike lanes as soon as possible as part of an active transportation effort," said Coun. Bruce Grandy, chair of the City's Transportation Committee. "This is part of the development for a more user-friendly transportation network in the city. These bike lanes are connected to one another, and will eventually tie into a broader on-road and off-road network."

As part of the implementation of the bike lanes, various signs will be installed identifying the bike routes, as well as where reserved bike lanes start, run and end. Share the road signage for cyclists and motorists will also be installed.

Pavement markings will include solid lines and bike outlines in white. Sharing the road safely will be the emphasis of the public education effort to support the implementation of the bike lanes on city streets. Pamphlets will be mailed to all city homes, and ads will appear on radio, in the newspaper, and on city buses. Information will also be posted to the City's web site.

Bike lanes will be on both sides of the streets identified. Reserved bike lanes will be 1.2 to 1.8 metres in width. Parking is not permitted in reserved bike lanes. The necessary bylaw amendments to limit parking along Crocket Street and Brown Boulevard will now proceed unto City Council for consideration. This does not impact on parking in the downtown. Installing the bike lanes and carrying out a public education effort will cost approximately $70,000.

"While bike lanes will be installed on certain streets, cyclists will continue to travel along all city streets," said Coun. Grandy. "No matter where motorists and cyclists are in the city, they are reminded to be on the look out for each other and for pedestrians. Share the road safely."

From fredericton.ca

Smevo

Jun 20, 2008, 7:12 PM

BradMacD

Jun 22, 2008, 4:30 AM

Wow, that was totally my video up there. xD <3
The new Water Treatment Plant looks >fantastic<. I absolutely love it. :D

Smevo

Jun 24, 2008, 5:30 AM

From The Gleaner

Busy night at council (http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/333927)
Published Monday June 23rd, 2008

By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Tenders for the city's northside fire station will be on tonight's council agenda.

The city's main fire station will be relocating to the new building on Cliffe Street. It will include a firefighter training centre. The fire training building is almost complete and will have smoke and fire simulators to allow training of rookie firefighters.

Appointments to Fredericton Non-Profit Housing Corp. and the appointment of a new city chaplain are on the agenda.

The public presentation of a bylaw spelling out municipal plan and zoning amendments for the multi-million-dollar downtown convention centre will be made.

The mayor's environmental awards for May and June will be handed out.

The Fredericton Tree Commission presents its annual report to city council as does the Fredericton Public Library and Nashwaaksis Public School Library.

Gay Pride Week will be proclaimed June 26 to July 3.

Several planning advisory committee reports will be presented to city council.

A new agreement for the operation of the Regent Street wharf will be reviewed.

A report will also be provided on the status of the Fredericton Trails and Bikeways master plan.

A bylaw to restrict parking on Crocket Street and Brown Boulevard is up for council consideration.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 24, 2008, 3:38 PM

City Awards $5-million Contract For Northside Fire Station

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/publicsafety/resources/hydrant303.jpg

Fredericton (June 23, 2008) - Simpson Building Contractors has been awarded a $5,035,354.16 contract to build the City's new fire station on Two Nations Crossing. The Fredericton-based general contracting company has more than 40 years of construction experience in New Brunswick and was the lowest of six bidders. The contract was approved during a meeting of City Council today.

The new fire station will be built adjacent to a state-of-the-art firefighter training tower which is currently nearing completion on the 4.5 acre site.

"I am very pleased to see the second phase of this important project is about to begin," said Fire Chief Philip Toole. "This new complex will allow us to better serve not only residents of Marysville, Barker's Point, Devon and nearby Local Service Districts but also realistically train a new generation of firefighters in a modern facility right here in Fredericton ."

Together, the tower and new fire station will be home to a new Centre of Excellence in Public Safety Training, offering specialized, life-like training for a new generation of firefighters from Fredericton and across the Maritimes. The complex will also be home to City firefighters and fire and rescue vehicles and provide fire suppression, first aid, water rescue, ice water rescue, hazmat and motor vehicle extrication services.

Construction of the new station is the second phase of the training centre project. It was designed by one of Atlantic Canada's foremost architectural firms, Sperry & Partners, of Halifax. It will feature an 11,090 square-foot bay for fire trucks and emergency vehicles. Locker rooms, day rooms and a dorm will take up 5,160 square feet with offices, training rooms and a public entrance adding another 5,040 square feet to the project.

Construction of the new station will begin in July and will be completed by summer 2009. The old fire station on MacLaren Avenue will be decommissioned once the new station on Two Nations Crossing comes on-line.

A separate contract to build the tower was awarded by the City to Monteith Underground Service Ltd. in October 2007. Training agreements with P.E.I.'s Holland College and other fire departments will offset some of the operating costs.

From fredericton.ca

kirjtc2

Jun 25, 2008, 2:36 PM

City needs more land to expand
Published Wednesday June 25th, 2008
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Fredericton's new development committee chairman, Coun. Dan Keenan, says he'll make the city's goal of annexation front and centre over the next four years of his council term.

It's been nearly seven years since the City of Fredericton first asked the provincial government to conduct a study into its goal of acquiring vacant land between its eastern boundaries at Lincoln, out to and including the Fredericton International Airport, and to the Town of Oromocto's border.

While the former Conservative government dragged its heels on the request, said Frank Flanagan, the city's director of development services, there have been meetings with the Liberal government.

Keenan said that's a positive sign and he'll try to step up the talks because it's important the city acquire more land.

"Over the course of the next year or so, I would like to really emphasize those discussions and step them up," Keenan said.

"I think it's time to move forward on our boundary expansion. It's important. We need to have it done well in advance of the next census in 2011."

Lincoln local service district and residents of that area won't be affected because the city's annexation request doesn't include any existing homes.

"It's important to note that this does not involve any residents in those areas. It's a boundary expansion of essentially vacant land at this point," Keenan said.

"It's important to use for a number of reasons.''

There's pressure on the city to find more land for all types of development, Keenan said.

"We have an issue with our industrial parks: the Fredericton Industrial Park and the Vanier Industrial Park. We've run out of room. We need to expand and right now the land that we own is not within the city boundaries,'' he said.

"We need to have the expansion of both boundaries to facilitate the expansion of the industrial park which will bring jobs and revenues to the city.''

The city has invested substantially in the Fredericton International Airport infrastructure and the airport welcomes becoming part of Fredericton, Keenan said.

Moving the city closer to the Town of Oromocto will help it achieve CMA or census metropolitan area status.

The designation marks Fredericton as a regional marketplace from Census Canada's perspective, and it's a critical measuring tool used by large retailers in determining whether to locate businesses here.

Census metropolitan area status means there's a density of 100,000 people or more within an area.

"When you look at some of the big-box retailers, if we had that designation, I think it would go a long ways to encourage them to locate in our area," Keenan said.

"Any businesses looking to locate, they look to see population densities as an important thing.

"CMA status says we have a population density of over 100,000 and that's important," Keenan said.

mylesmalley

Jun 25, 2008, 3:52 PM

Unless they know something we don't....

Fredericton, the city, as roughly 50,000 people. Fredericton Census Agglomeration has roughly 86,000. The CA contains all the areas around Fredericton excluding Oromocto, and totals more than 4,500 sq/km of land.

For a city to become a CMA, they need to have over 100,000 within a CA - unless they've changed the rules. I really don't see how they plan on adding 14,000 people to the city through growth. And annexing land from lincoln won't have any effect at all on the CA population, it will just increase the city of fredericton's population at the expense of Lincoln.

kirjtc2

Jun 25, 2008, 7:32 PM

I think the idea is to add Oromocto to the CA. StatsCan looks more favourably on adding places that directly adjoin the central city to a CA.

If you added Oromocto and Burton LSD (which would probably also be added based on commuting patterns), you'd get over the 100K mark.

mylesmalley

Jun 25, 2008, 8:03 PM

I guess I just think it's a bit of a stretch...
Moncton CA had a population of 125,000 before we were officially counted, and in an area 2/3 as big as freddy (not including burton and oromocto). Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Fredericton a CMA...but growth through annexation seems like cheating to me.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 25, 2008, 9:57 PM

Cheating... you make it sound like a competition or something.

mylesmalley

Jun 25, 2008, 10:30 PM

Cheating... you make it sound like a competition or something.

Lol, no, I don't mean that at all, and like I said, I'd love to see Fredericton become a CMA. What I mean is, the annexing they're after... it's bending the rules. If Cambleton, Bathurst, Edmonston and Miramichi amalgamated to form one huge 'city' with 150k people just so they could get a CMA designation, would it really reflect the reality of the situation?

That said, it's really a non issue.

kwajo

Jun 26, 2008, 1:21 PM

Lol, no, I don't mean that at all, and like I said, I'd love to see Fredericton become a CMA. What I mean is, the annexing they're after... it's bending the rules. If Cambleton, Bathurst, Edmonston and Miramichi amalgamated to form one huge 'city' with 150k people just so they could get a CMA designation, would it really reflect the reality of the situation?

That said, it's really a non issue.
Well now you've gone and done it. I fully expect to see a headline in the Times and Transcript next week saying, "Northern NB Communities Enter Discussions on an Acadian Regional Municipality, or ARM"

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 26, 2008, 1:50 PM

Evan worse united north america!

mylesmalley

Jun 26, 2008, 3:37 PM

We had a similar discussion in another thread. Amalgamate the four atlantic provinces into one super-city. A city with 2.5 million people, and more territory than half of western europe...

gotta say though, a city named ARM would lead to so many great company names:

ARM Chair, a furniture manufacturer
ARM Pits, an open-pit mining company

...well, that's all i can think of at the moment. but trust me, there are tons!

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 26, 2008, 4:40 PM

Lol. I dont think I would evan consider naming a company arm pits.

mylesmalley

Jun 26, 2008, 5:19 PM

Lol. I dont think I would evan consider naming a company arm pits.

You're right. It stinks.

pixartguy

Jun 26, 2008, 7:05 PM

Well, it's hard to have much faith in this Dave Keenan guy. Either that or he's been SERIOUSLY misquoted.
How is expanding F'ton all the way out to the airport NOT going to effect homes or people. He claims this is all empty land. Uhhh, Dave? Have you ever driven out the Lincoln Rd to the airport. There's nothing but homes and people along the whole route. Who is your fact finder?
Also, the whole talk of population denisity is actually quite funny. Expanding the size of a city (or any container for that matter) does NOTHING to increase the density of the people (i.e. contents) within. He clearly means to say "increase F'ton's population" but he keeps confusing the terms and says "increase F'ton's population density". Not the same thing dude. Too funny.

mylesmalley

Jun 26, 2008, 7:22 PM

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 27, 2008, 12:56 AM

Its Dan keenan BTW.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 27, 2008, 12:57 AM

Mayor Welcomes Community College Announcement

Fredericton (June 26, 2008) - Mayor Brad Woodside welcomed today's announcement by the Province of New Brunswick that Fredericton will get a new Community College campus as well as enhancements and a re-branding of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design,

"This 'Promise Made, Promise Kept' announcement is great news and important to the future of Fredericton." said Mayor Woodside. "Premier Shawn Graham has followed through on the election campaign promise he made to the citizens of Fredericton two years ago about a new community college campus. I'm very pleased about that but he has gone even further with a new and expanded role for the College of Craft & Design. It's a great day for Fredericton."

Premier Graham and Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Ed Doherty announced today that the community college network will be redesigned so that it will be separate from government and closely aligned to community needs.

As part of the new realignment of the community college network, the government will invest in a new campus for Fredericton, with the first intake of students expected in 2011-12.

Beginning next year, the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design will be enhanced and re-branded with a distinct identity as the centre for artistic and creative excellence in the province, in order to attract a greater student population. It will also be mandated to form stronger partnerships with public universities.

Capacity at the community colleges will also be expanded by 11,000 spaces over the next five years, with an additional 1,000 by the school year 2017-18.

For more information on today's announcement visit the Province of New Brunswick website at www.gnb.ca.

From fredericton.ca

mylesmalley

Jun 27, 2008, 2:33 AM

i wonder where they plan on putting those 11,000 new seats.

According to their wikipedia page, they have about 14,000 full and part time students... so does this mean big expansion, or more new colleges?

Smevo

Jun 27, 2008, 7:38 AM

Thought I'd toss on some useless info regarding the land/CA situation in Fredericton by comparing/ranking it with all the other CMA/CA's in the Atlantic Provinces. :cheers:

Table sorted by area:
%'s are of CMA/CA
CMA/CA....................Population.....Area..........Density...Pop %...Area %
Miramichi......................24,737......6,634.81......3.7.......73.3....2.71
Halifax........................372,858......5,495.62.....67.8......99.95...99.9
Fredericton...................85,688......4,521.72.....19.0......59.0....2.89
Saint John...................122,389......3,359.55.....36.4.....55.6....9.39
Truro...........................45,077......2,732.44.....16.5......26.1....1.28
Sydney (CBRM).............105,928.....2,470.57.....42.9......96.5.....98.5
Moncton......................126,424.....2,405.91.....52.5......50.7.....5.87
Bathurst.......................31,424......2,087.97.....15.0......40.5.....4.38
New Glasgow.................36,288......2,066.44.....17.6......26.1.....0.48
Campbellton..................17,888.......1,630.35.....11.0.....41.3.....1.14
Edmundston..................21,442........902.18......23.8......77.6.....11.9
St. John's....................181,113.......804.64.....225.1......55.6.....55.4
Charlottetown...............58,625........728.03......80.5......54.9....6.09
Kentville.......................25,969........607.65......42.7......22.4....2.86
Corner Brook.................26,623........255.10.....104.4.....75.4....58.1
Bay Roberts..................10,507........103.71.....101.3.....51.5....23.1
Summerside..................16,153.........91.85......175.9.....89.8....30.9
Grand Falls-Windsor........13,558........54.48......248.9.....100......100

Fredericton now(behind):
Population 6th (Halifax, St. John's, Moncton, Saint John, Sydney-CBRM)
Area 3rd (Miramichi, Halifax)
Density 13th (Grand Falls-Windsor, St. John's, Summerside, Corner Brook, Bay Roberts, Charlottetown, Halifax, Moncton, Sydney-CBRM, Kentville, Saint John, Edmundston)

Fredericton with Oromcoto and Burton LSD:
Population 6th (99,393)
Area 3rd (4803.85)
Density 13th (20.69)

CSD among central cities of CA's
Fredericton now only (behind):
Population 6th (Halifax, Sydney-CBRM, St. John's, Saint John, Moncton)
Area 8th (Halifax, Sydney-CBRM, St. John's, Saint John, Miramichi, Corner Brook, Moncton)
Density 6th (New Glasgow, Charlottetown, Summerside, Moncton, Campbellton)

Urban Area of CMA/CA's
Fredericton now only (behind):
Urban Population 56,245 - 6th (Halifax, St. John's, Moncton, Saint John, Sydney-CBRM)
Urban Land Area 141.36 - 5th (Halifax, Saint John, St. John's, Moncton)
Urban Pop Density 397.9 - 14th (Halifax, Corner Brook, St. John's, Charlottetown, Moncton, Sydney-CBRM, New Glasgow, Grand Falls-Windsor, Summerside, Truro, Campbellton, Saint John, Kentville)
% CA Urban Pop 65.7 - 12th (Bay Roberts, Grand Falls-Windsor, Summerside, St. John's, Corner Brook, Moncton, Halifax, Saint John, Sydney-CBRM, Charlottetown, Edmundston)
% CA Urban Area 3.13 - 14th (Bay Roberts, Grand Falls-Windsor, Summerside, St. John's, Corner Brook, Charlottetown, Moncton, Saint John, Sydney-CBRM, Kentville, Halifax, Edmundston, Bathurst)

cl812

Jun 27, 2008, 6:51 PM

I saw in the Gleaner yesterday, construction has started on the UNB Currie Centre

kirjtc2

Jun 27, 2008, 7:08 PM

City named among best places for real estate
Published Friday June 27th, 2008
A3
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Fredericton has been named the fourth best place in Canada to invest in real estate.

In a survey of 35 major markets across Canada published in the May 2008 edition of MoneySense Magazine, Fredericton was one of only seven Canadian cities to share an A-minus rating, the highest awarded.

"In terms of more bang for your buck, Fredericton is once again recognized as a smart city, a great place to invest your money and an even better place to live," said Coun. Dan Keenan, chairman of the city's development committee.

"Any time you get third-party validation for what you are doing right, it helps attract investment and that contributes to our already enviable balanced lifestyle.''

Fredericton was given an overall score of 80 points based on its results in three categories: value, momentum and economic strength.

Regina finished first with 84 points, while Saskatoon and Winnipeg tied for second with 81 points each.

MoneySense Magazine said Fredericton "has a lot to offer bargain hunters, especially as the province's economy shows signs of life."

To determine value, average rents were compared to average home prices using statistics from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. The higher the rent, the higher the value of a home.

Also considered in assigning a grade for value was the number of years of average household income that it would take to purchase a typical local home. Cities where residents could afford to buy homes easily earned higher marks.

To gauge momentum, or how hot each market is, MoneySense compared home sales to new real estate listings and looked at the increase in home prices over the past year and past four years. It measured how much rents have gone up over the past four years, an indicator of pent up demand for housing.

Economic strength ratings were assigned on the basis of how fast each community grew between 2001 and 2006, the unemployment rate, employment outlook, as well as discretionary income levels.

Earlier this year, Fredericton was named the third best place to live in Canada by MoneySense Magazine and was recognized as the second-best walking city in Canada by the Canadian Federation of Pediatric Medicine.

The city was also named to the 2008 Top 7 list of the world's Most Intelligent Communities by the Intelligent Community Forum.

pixartguy

Jun 27, 2008, 7:17 PM

My God! Grand Falls-Windsor is so dense it practically qualifies as a black hole!

mylesmalley

Jun 28, 2008, 5:46 AM

Tokyo's quite the singularity... 5800 per square km. NYC is 10,500 per km/sq. Macau is 18,500... Macau is the densest 'country' in the world.

...and probably my favorite statistic of all...

if Canada had the same population density as Macau, we'd have...

184,456,285,000 people. Oy!

Smevo

Jun 28, 2008, 6:27 AM

^lol.

What's funny is that Keenan was right. If the city annexed the land they want, and the CA was expanded to include Oromocto and Burton LSD, then Fredericton (CA) would actually increase in population density (from 19.0 to 20.69).

As far as Urban Densities go, to put Fredericton in perspective with real numbers rather than just a list of who it's behind:
City (density) {Fred's urban pop with density}
Halifax (1,046.1) {147,877}
Corner Brook (865.1) {122,291}
St. John's (826.2) {116,792}
Charlottetown (684.7) {96,789}
Moncton (625.7) {88,449}
Sydney-CBRM (575.1) {81,296}
New Glasgow (528.4) {74,695}
Grand Falls-Windsor (518.1) {73,239}
Summerside (511.7) {72,334}
Truro (500.4) {70,737}
Campbellton (459.7) {64,983}
Saint John (418.0) {59,088}
Kentville (406.1) {57,406}
Fredericton (397.9) {56,245}

And for the heck of it, % CA Urban Population
City (% Urban Population) {Fred's Urban Pop with same %}
Bay Roberts (96.9) {83,012}
Grand Falls-Windsor (92.0) {78,815}
Summerside (89.9) {77,016}
St. John's (86.1) {73,760}
Corner Brook (79.9) {68,449}
Moncton (79.7) {68,277}
Halifax (77.7) {66,564}
Saint John (75.8) {64,936}
Sydney-CBRM (73.8) {63,223}
Charlottetown (70.0) {59,968}
Edmundston (65.8) {56,370}
Fredericton (65.7) {56,245}

Well, we can wish.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jun 28, 2008, 1:31 PM

delete*

kirjtc2

Jul 1, 2008, 4:28 PM

Construction downtown forces city to make parking changes
Published Tuesday July 1st, 2008
A3
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

There will be some short-term pain for long-term gain in the city's downtown east end during the construction phase of a convention centre, parking garage and office building.

In the fall, a 42-stall parking lot used by government workers will be off limits, as the site becomes the future home of a $41-million office building.

In 2010, the six-storey, $10-million parking garage should be completed, but until then the city and province have negotiated short-term solutions for the legislative assembly parking group. Other civil servants will be left to fend for themselves.

The city has agreed to relocate the legislative assembly group to 28 spaces in the parking lot on the corner of King and St. John streets. The remaining 14 spaces will be accommodated in 14 reserved spaces on King Street.

The city will have to convert metered parking spaces temporarily to permit-only spaces.

"This will be a temporary measure as the spaces form an important part of the city's short-term parking system and need to be returned to the city's regular on-street parking meter inventory when the project is complete," says a transportation committee report.

"As parking will be limited in this area (King Street) and demand will be great, the fine level for parking in legislative assembly only permit spaces without the proper permit will be set high enough to discourage parking in these spaces."

kirjtc2

Jul 2, 2008, 2:40 PM

Business takes off
Published Wednesday July 2nd, 2008
Control tower | Fredericton says it's time for upgrade
A1
By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

Officials at the Fredericton International Airport are optimistic the facility could soon be the next in the province to have a full-service control tower.

Proponents say growing flight traffic - much of it driven by still-increasing activity at the Moncton Flight College's Fredericton campus - could bring about the change.

Aircraft movements at the airport, flights or landings increased by 37 per cent in 2007 to 34,078. In May, it was the busiest airport of its class in Atlantic Canada.

"There's no question we are getting busier," said David Innes, CEO of the Greater Fredericton Airport Authority.

"I think NAV Canada should be looking at establishing a (tower)."

Air traffic control towers are required at airports with higher levels of traffic in terms of number and complexity. Controllers direct pilots during takeoff and landing.

Flight service stations are intended to meet the needs of airports with lower traffic complexity and fewer movements.

Flight service specialists provide advisory services to pilots giving them all the information they need to land or take off safely.

The information includes runway and weather conditions, traffic advisories and other pertinent information.

A total of 41 airports across the country have air traffic control towers. Fifty-three, including Fredericton, have flight service stations.

The Fredericton airport saw the largest monthly increase at a flight service station in the country for the number of flights for the month of May.

According to Statistics Canada, the total number of aircraft movements for the month of May was up 142.5 per cent over the year previous to 5,769. Of the 3,390 additional movements, 2,080 were local flights, a nine-fold increase in that category.

The change makes Fredericton the third-busiest flight service station in the country after Fort McMurray, Alta., and North Bay, Ont.

And proponents note that the flight college - which only opened in the second half of 2007 - is still growing.

NAV Canada, which runs Canada's civil air navigation services, said it's keeping an eye on the situation.

"We regularly monitor activity levels at airports to ensure that our services support safe operation," said Ron Singer.

"The number of movements is clearly a factor for determining what level of service is required, but it's not as simple as looking at the total number," he said.

It also looks at the size of aircraft involved and the level of complexity involved with scheduled air traffic versus private air traffic.

NAV Canada is in contact with Moncton Flight College's Fredericton campus - which is training Chinese student pilots - about its growth, he said.

The bulk of the traffic increase at the airport is from the college, which has grown from 21 to 132 students in the last year. It hopes to increase to 240 students over the next 18 months.

In the meantime, new training has been undertaken to handle the growing flow of traffic, Singer said. Staffing at the flight service station between 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. has been doubled to two employees and remains at one person overnight, Singer said.

Mike Tilley, president of the college's Fredericton campus, confirms the school is growing and would be receptive to the addition of a control tower.

"Traffic here is only going to increase as we add more students," he said. "For a flight service station, we are quite busy."

caveat.doctor

Jul 6, 2008, 4:30 AM

Welcome (in advance). Are you working at Base Gagetown or at the small military compound downtown? If it's Gagetown, you'll find lots of townhouses and apartments geared towards people stationed there nearby to the base gates. Oromocto is a 10 minute drive from Fredericton (20 or more depending on traffic from downtown). If it's downtown, there's a couple of condos - Marketgate and corner of Northumberland and King (I can't remember the name right now), and lots of apartments in the area.

If you're looking for upscale apartments, compare this building with Regency Park on Queen Street, it's a highrise executive apartment building in the heart of downtown. Other than that, most of the apartments are geared towards upper-year students (eg- the quiet ones...supposedly) and are in the neighbourhood of $800 downtown (two bedrooom) and roughly similar throughout the rest of town, with some exceptions. Most of the downtown ones are houses converted into 2-4 apartment units, though there are a couple of 3 or 4 storey buildings. They're nothing fancy, but you can occasionally luck into finding a gem for a bargain. Ultimately, it all depends what you'd be happy with and what you're willing to settle for.

Anyway, good luck, and don't be shy to ask anything else. Most of us moved here from elsewhere (I've been here 8 years personally, and been around the apartment market Northside, Downtown, and Forest Hill areas). The best one I had was downtown by far, it was the bottom floor of a house converted into two units...nothing fancy, but the location and ample room made up for it. kirjtc2 is a local, and maybe some of the other guys too. Hope that helps a bit. :cheers:

Thanks again for the advice - I just spent the past few days in town looking for a place. I'm surprised how hard it was! A lot of places on kijiji were awful... mcgathey.ca has some good quality, well-maintained apartments (Mr McGathey himself actually toured me the vacancies - good guy, very professional), but I ended up taking a place Downtown (overlooking Officers' Square - nice!) through a rental search agent. Apparently a lot of landlords /only/ list through search agents: the guy said usually out-of-town people coming in with professional jobs tend to use them instead of locals (which I guess they like?) instead of putting ads in the paper or online.

I've never been to Fredericton before and had no idea what to expect, and I have to say I like what I see. Downtown is great: compact with continuous streetscapes, an impressive number of patio restaurants/cafes (at least one or two on every block!), no ugly surface gravel parking lots breaking things up, lots of high-quality historic buildings from every time period since before Confederation (the Garrison District to the 60s modern Centennial Building), arts centres (the Beaverbrook Gallery and the Playhouse... no cinemas though), and all the touristy stuff that brings people in (concerts, marching guards, play croquet!). And it's all not just for show, you can actually live Downtown; the Achilles' Heel of city centres - no grocery - isn't a problem: there's two, one on either end.

Doesn't seem like there's many Fredericton pictures here yet, so here's a few:

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And having wireless Internet is neat:

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One weak point I can point out after my quick cursory glance at town: I walked past the transit exchange at least a few times without realising it

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3113/2640332147_f049504ca9_o.jpg

It wasn't until I saw actual buses there did I pick up on it

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3052/2647966396_c5a7029773_o.jpg

The signs are barely visible, and the only transit "infrastructure" is a map posted on the wall around the corner from where the buses stop

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/2641169376_dc812d6439_o.jpg

Though Fredericton Transit seems to be leading the way on online mapping and scheduling access (they're only one of two systems in Canada using Google Transit (http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=45.964993,-66.616287&spn=0.277302,0.519791&f=d&dirflg=r)), and seems to have a new-ish fleet of NovaBuses with bike racks (yay!), I think it could use a bit more investment in being more visible infrastructure-wise. That's one key way of raising awareness of transit: having signs and shelters wherever you look, making the "brand" more visible.

There's a great trail system going north-south and east-west, replacing a decommissioned train line, and inheriting a rail bridge

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3014/2640352439_7bd0db1276_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3115/2641178858_d88d424305_o.jpg

with a neat Thai sun shelter in honour of the city's link with a community in Thailand

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and an inexplicable snowbank in the middle of summer

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3101/2641178446_913e63a0ac_o.jpg

and deer crossing

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but decommissioning the train means there's a sad old train station looking pretty abandoned and falling apart

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http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2641196498_01c92259f6_o.jpg.

Anyway, looking forward to settling into town and doing more poking around. If you're into construction (seeing as how this is a construction thread), there's a neat display at the Beaverbrook gallery about architecture in New Brunswick, you should check it out:

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More photos of Fredericton (http://www.flickr.com/photos/caveatdoctor/sets/72157605998646400/), the Garrison District (http://www.flickr.com/photos/caveatdoctor/sets/72157606002721883/) and - bonus! - Gagetown Village (http://www.flickr.com/photos/caveatdoctor/sets/72157606002242805/) on my flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/caveatdoctor/sets/) page.

Freddypop

Jul 6, 2008, 1:17 PM

Great pics and welcome to Freddy...

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 7, 2008, 4:17 PM

Nice pics!

The snow is from the Lady Beaverbrook arena.

mylesmalley

Jul 7, 2008, 7:05 PM

I think a meetup might be in order?

Welcome again to Fredericton, Caveat.Doctor. Just so you know, there is a cinema at the Regent Mall. Believe me...it's quite a hike up the hill from downtown though.

Justin2919

Jul 8, 2008, 5:44 PM

Hey this is my first time posting here. Anyways Im from Freddy but im working in Fort McMurray for the summer and miss home like crazy. I guess Im like most ppl on these boards who love the growth our city is seeing and Im really excited about the new growth in downtown freddy. Anyways, I was wondering if somebody could tell me what the buildings I saw from arsamco.com on i think page 3 or 4 of this thread are all about. Are they approved or just designed? Thanks.

Justin2919

Jul 8, 2008, 6:03 PM

Just a couple of things to pass your way, I worked at the Empire in the mall as a projectionist and ill be going back at the end of August. More important to this forum though is that my dad is fairly well connected and he was talking to a business man from downtown and he told him that all of the buildings on queen up to the corner (not the building right on the corner) had already been bought so a hotel could be build in between the new office building and the row of buildings facing Regent St. like the Snooty Fox.
:tup:

kirjtc2

Jul 8, 2008, 9:01 PM

Welcome Justin and caveat.doctor!

Here's another Youtube from everyone's favourite ADD-riddled New Brunswick political blogger, Charles LeBlanc. He tries to walk up the new ramp off the Westmorland Street Bridge:
IRM6BGtolME

mylesmalley

Jul 8, 2008, 10:16 PM

mylesmalley

Jul 8, 2008, 10:26 PM

Justin2919

Jul 9, 2008, 12:42 AM

Welcome to the boards, Justin! The more the merrier

So you mean on the south side of queen, between regent and the new building?

Thanks, yeah i forget whats in those buildings but i think one is a beef noodle place and possibly where the pottery cafe? is. But yeah right in that area so its nice and close to the Ecentre.

mylesmalley

Jul 9, 2008, 10:23 AM

Northside development kicks into high gear
Published Monday July 7th, 2008

A1
By CHRIS FOX
fox.chris@dailygleaner.com

It's turning into a shopper's paradise and it shows no signs of slowing down.

The Daily Gleaner/James West Pho
TRYING TO KEEP COOL: Fredericton north resident Joyce Bustard puts her new fan into the trunk of her car Saturday afternoon. Bustard purchased the fan from the new Kent store at Two Nations Crossing.
"The whole north side is really taking shape with a lot of existing development and proposed development." said Frank Flanagan, director of development services.

He said the Two Nations Crossing area of Fredericton has led the charge with the opening of three big-box stores. He said there is plenty of undeveloped space left in the area, and he expects it to turn into a major shopping destination.

"We have been getting a lot of interest from people looking to develop that area even more," he said.

"There are several proposals on the table for more stand alones, and there have been several inquiries from developers about developing land adjacent to that for commercial purposes as well, so definitely we anticipate that development to just keep on growing."

Coun. Dan Keenan, chairman of the city's development committee, said he's been pleasantly surprised by the amount of growth on the city's north side, particularly in the Two Nations Crossing area.

He said providing shopping and employment opportunities to Fredericton residents on both sides of the river fits into the city's green plan.

"The provincial government is leasing space in an office building in Two Nations, the retail development is providing a lot of employment opportunities, and that's a good thing for the entire city," he said.

"If you are closer to your work, you're more likely to bike or walk, and that just fits with our active transportation and green plan."

Trina MacDonald, general manager of Business Fredericton North, said she's pleased with the recent growth, but said many northside residents still work on the other side of the river, and will continue to do so unless bus service is improved.

"We have members who have employees, as well as customers that can't get to their stores, and that is a huge problem," she said.

"In order to accommodate the growing commercial and residential sectors of the north side, we need better bus service, and if we don't get it, I am concerned it will have a major impact on employment opportunities for people because it's difficult for employers to hire people who can't get there."

Flanagan agreed transportation needs to be improved, but that includes more than just bus service. He said one of the city's main goals is to see the province break ground on the proposed Two Nations Crossing interchange.

"Right now our big priority is improving our transportation infrastructure," he said. "We need to facilitate movement from residential areas to the new shopping centres and places of employment.

"One way that can be done is upgrading major roadways, and that helps, but we also need major pieces of infrastructure such as the Two Nations Crossing interchange to reduce traffic congestion."

Joyce Bustard, who was shopping at the Two Nations Crossing Kent store on Saturday, agreed with the need for improved transportation.

But she said she is happy to be able to do her shopping close to her Killarney Lake home.

"I really like having this development here," she said. "It is handy, and we don't have to go up in the traffic of the south side which is the big thing. Before we would drive 10 minutes to do any shopping, and now we don't have to."

Bustard said her biggest concern with regard to her neighbourhood is that development continues.

"I just want the development to continue here because I am really enjoying the convenience of it so far," she said.

Freddypop

Jul 10, 2008, 4:22 PM

Was up at UNB this afternoon and noticed quite of bit of prep work done on the new Currie Wellness centre

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 15, 2008, 12:34 PM

City On Target for Another Big Year of Development

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/citygovernment/resources/devstats2008303.jpg

Fredericton (July 14, 2008) - The City of Fredericton issued 630 building permits in the first six months of 2008 representing construction worth almost $58 million, well ahead of the $45.3 million recorded in the first six months of 2007.

"It looks like we're heading for another solid year of more than $100 million in development," said Councillor Dan Keenan, Chair of the City's Development Committee. "We are more than $12.5 million ahead of last year's pace with lots more building activity still to come in the last half of 2008."

Commercial, Industrial and institutional construction are leading the city's growth so far this year along with the construction of new apartment buildings.

Institutional construction in the first six months of 2008 is just over $11 million compared to $4.3 million in the first half of 2007. This $6.7 million increase is primarily due to the construction of the Bliss Carmen Middle School on Kimble Drive and renovations to MacLaggan Hall and the UNB student affairs building on the University of New Brunswick campus. Growth in this sector will continue in the last half of 2008 with work expected to begin on an addition to York Manor, a senior living community on Rainsford Lane and construction of the Richard J. Currie Centre Healthy Living Village on the UNB campus.

Commercial construction is up more than $2 million so far in 2008, topping $16.6 million compared to $14.6 million in the first half of 2007. Construction of new retail stores and restaurants worth $3.2 million at the Corbett Centre, a new $2-million strip mall on Bishop Drive, a new $2.5 million retail furniture building on Alison Boulevard and a $1.78-million investment in the former Fredericton Mall, now known as the Uptown Centre, a $490,000 new strip mall and tenant fit-ups on Brookside Drive, and a $685,000 tenant fit-up at the Brookside Mall are driving the commercial sector growth this year. More development at the Corbett Centre and construction of a new building in the nearby Knowledge Park will push Commercial development numbers higher in the last half of 2008.

Industrial construction is up $2.7 million over 2007, driven by a new Covey Basics warehouse on Alison Boulevard

Municipal, provincial and federal construction in the city so far this year is down to $917,160 in 2008 compared to $2.2 million in the first half of 2007. This figure is expected to rise sharply in the last half of 2008 with the anticipated start of construction of a new fire station on Two Nations Crossing and the East End Development Project, which will include a conference centre, office building and parking garage.

Apartment building construction in the first half of 2008 stands at $6.2 million compared to $2.3 million in the first half of 2007. There are already 102 units approved so far this year compared to 105 in all of 2007. The major apartment building projects so far this year include a $3.05-million 42-unit building on Regent Street and two 18-unit buildings on Valcour Drive worth $2.2-million.

New home construction is on the same pace as 2007 with $13,329,320 in residential single units recorded so far in 2008 compared to $13,862,400 for the first six months of 2007. Townhouse construction is down slightly to $1.15 million in 2008 compared to $1.57 in 2007. Duplex construction, at $1.74 this year, is just slightly behind last year's $1.92 million pace.

The value of new mini homes so far this year is $1,072,000 compared to $1,027,000 in 2007. Basement apartment construction value is $13,000 so far this year compared to $105,000 for the first six months of 2007.

During the last half of 2008, it is expected work will get under way on an 80-unit townhouse development on Kimble Drive. Other anticipated major residential construction projects this year include: a 40-unit apartment building, 30 townhouses and four semi-detached homes at Rainsford Gardens; and a project on Morning Gate Drive that will see construction of 30 single detached lots, 18 semi-detached lots and two 16-unit apartment buildings.

The construction of accessory buildings, including storage buildings, carports and garages, swimming pools and decks for 2008 has a value of $551,662, compared to $499,704 in the first half of 2007. The value of residential renovations and repairs in the first half of 2008 was $2,645,076. In the fist six months of 2007 that figure was $1,894,607.

"This level of development helps generate the tax revenue that enables Council to deliver the programs and services our residents enjoy," said Coun. Keenan. "It's very encouraging to see this growth and development occurring in all areas of the City, across all sectors, which is a sign of continuing confidence in Fredericton's economy from the development community."

The City generated revenue of $480,000 in building permit fees in the first half of this year compared to $386,000 for the same period in 2007.

From fredericton.ca

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 15, 2008, 12:36 PM

City Awards $150,000 Contract for Traffic Study Update

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/resources/trafficstudy303.jpg

Fredericton (July 14, 2008) - City Council has awarded ADI Limited a $150,000 contract to undertake a comprehensive review of traffic patterns throughout the entire network of major streets in Fredericton.

The ADI traffic study will be used by Council to guide transportation and implementation policy for the next decade.

"It has been eight years since we updated this important planning document," said Councillor Bruce Grandy, chair of the City's Transportation Committee. "The pace of development has been so rapid in the last several years that it is appropriate that we get an updated traffic model that will help us evaluate future proposed developments."

The Traffic Study forms part of the City's Municipal Plan and is normally updated every 10 years. The ADI report will guide the City's capital works plans and help Council prioritize capital work budgets in subsequent years.

One of the primary objectives of the traffic study will be to give Council a comprehensive understanding of traffic volumes, patterns, demands, and major traffic generators within the City. The study will also identify streets that currently operate at unacceptable levels, or are projected to operate at unacceptable levels, due to anticipated growth and development and make recommendations to make the traffic system more effective.

"This Study will address a number of issues and improvement options in keeping with the City's goal of creating a safe and efficient transportation network," said Coun. Grandy. "It will enable us to take a proactive approach to improving transportation safety on both existing transportation infrastructure and new transportation projects."

ADI will review current street design specifications and technologies that both improve efficiency and safety. It will evaluate pedestrian facilities, particularly in the downtown core and evaluate the effectiveness of reversible lanes on the Westmorland Street Bridge.

"Pedestrian safety and ideas like the Westmorland Street bridge are very important issues that this study will address," said Coun. Grandy. "I'm looking forward to receiving the report from ADI."

ADI was selected over three other bids and was the unanimous choice of the committee that evaluated the proposals. Don Good, P. Eng., ADI Limited's Senior Transportation Planning Engineer with over 35 years experience in the transportation consulting industry, will serve as Project Manager. Mr. Good heads up ADI's Transportation Planning Group.

From fredericton.ca

mylesmalley

Jul 15, 2008, 1:33 PM

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 15, 2008, 2:49 PM

Well it isn't that hard to get on the Vanier from Regent. You just have to go all the way around the Regent Mall wich doesin't take that long but is still a pain in the ass.

mylesmalley

Jul 15, 2008, 3:52 PM

Well it isn't that hard to get on the Vanier from Regent. You just have to go all the way around the Regent Mall wich doesin't take that long but is still a pain in the ass.

It's frustrating from where I live. I can see the vanier from my building, but I'd have to loop around to get to it. You're rigt, it isn't that big of an inconvenience other than at rush hour, but it is a pain in the ass.

kirjtc2

Jul 15, 2008, 4:13 PM

Festival unveils all-star talent for this year's event
Published Tuesday July 15th, 2008
Harvest Jazz and Blues 2008
A1
By KRIS MCDAVID
mcdavid.kristofer@dailygleaner.com

Organizers of this year's Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival are giddy about the lineup they're rolling out for the annual September showcase.

The festival will have headliners such as blues legend and rock 'n' roll hall of famer Buddy Guy, British indie rockers Bloc Party, and Derek Trucks, one of the Top 100 guitarists of all time according to Rolling Stone magazine.

Festival organizers will announce the official schedule today at 11:30 a.m.

The festival will be held Sept. 9-14.

"We're just over the moon to be announcing the amount of talent that we've got coming this year," said music director Brent Staeben. "It's going to be a great schedule full of diverse talent that will offer a little bit of everything for everyone."

Staeben said this year's lineup will feature the most international flavour the festival has seen in its 18-year history.

"The main thing for this year is that the international vibe is going to be much greater than it's ever been," he said. "We've got a number of bands coming in from all over the world, places like the U.K., Israel, Holland, Africa and some Canadian ex-pats from Cuba as well."

Staeben said the process of recruiting talent to the capital city is becoming easier to sell to musicians because of the reputation and the resources the festival has garnered over the years.

"The boys from (southern rock band) Gov't Mule had an awesome time here last year, which made it easier to recruit Derek Trucks, a close friend, and Grace Potter, whose agency also represents Gov't Mule," he said

"And thanks to the support of our local audiences, we're able to afford to go after the bigger name acts like Bloc Party or Buddy Guy."

Staeben said he's hopeful the diverse lineup, which will also include its usual fair share of local talent, will help to build upon the estimated 75,000 people who took in last year's festivities.

He said the festival's winning formula can be attributed in large part to the "neighbourhood party" atmosphere that the event takes on during those five days in September.

"Harvest Jazz and Blues is a different kind of experience, and it really is an experience," said Staeben.

"You have the ability to interact with world-class musicians in smaller, more intimate venues, which in turn creates a real energy, as opposed to sitting in the middle of a field somewhere."

Tickets for the festival go on sale Saturday and can be purchased at Harvest Central, located at 81 Regent St.

[I'm excited about this one more than ever before. Definitely going to see Derek Trucks, and it's interesting they brought up Grace Potter as I saw her just this past Saturday when she opened for my favourite band, the Black Crowes, in Toronto.]

kirjtc2

Jul 15, 2008, 4:15 PM

Residents nix housing plan
Published Tuesday July 15th, 2008
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Gibson Street property owners, including the Devon Lumber Mill, oppose the development of a low-income native housing project at 362-372 Gibson St.

Even the project applicant, Skigin-Elnoog Housing Corp., has a beef with where the city wants it to place an office building on the property.

The project has made it to second reading, but city councillors want a number of answers to their questions before a final decision on the zoning application in two weeks.

Eight area residents - plus lawyer Keith Allen, representing property owner Lloyd Gill and speaking on behalf of the lumber mill's ownership - said the city shouldn't be intensifying land uses in an older part of the city where 80 per cent of the neighborhood is single-family residential.

"The end result of this development is the beginning of a major change for the neighbourhood. Spot rezoning should not be done to create disruptions and bring about radical changes to a neighbourhood. It, in fact, should only be used as a tool to bring about conformity of properties to the general character of the neighbourhood," Allen said.

Gibson Street resident Theresa Logan said situating the housing development on traffic-laden Gibson Street would be a "recipe for disaster."

"Recent fatal accidents in the province involving young children and traffic should be a stark reminder that these two do not mix," Logan said.

Skigin-Elnoog is a non-profit housing group that works with off-reserve aboriginals. It is asking for a rezoning to R-6 from R-4A on two pieces of land it hopes to buy. It wants to build an office building on the front of the property and group three blocks of townhouses for a total of 12 housing units behind the office.

While housing corporation general manager Gary Gould said there's actually enough land to support 28 housing units in an R-6 zone, his group wants to limit the site to 12 townhouse units to ensure plenty of green space for youngsters.

Neighbours said 12 units is too much density when most homes in the neighbourhood are single-family and the R-4A zone at most would allow for a tri-plex.

Carol Randall, who lives directly opposite the site of the affordable-housing development, said 40 years of her life savings are tied up in her home.

Randall, who's disabled due to childhood polio, said she fears her property's value will plummet if affordable housing goes in across the street.

Skigin-Elnoog has to find a new home for its office because the city plans to buy its existing office building at 120 Cliffe St. and rip it down to make room for the northeast Westmorland Street Bridge ramp.

But Gould said the city's planners want the office relocated to the rear of the site.

"Anyone ... coming into our office would have to drive through two blocks of residential units, thereby creating a higher safety issue for children in the area," Gould said.

On the whole, however, Gould said the Gibson Street property is a win-win because there's enough land for both the office and housing units at a reasonable cost. The amount of green space included in the planning for the site would be five times what the city requires, Gould said.

"It's close to schools, convenience stores, dentists' offices, drug stores. It's also on a bus route ... Low-income families need public transportation," Gould said.

Gibson Street resident Dale White, 72, said it's not a good feeling to think he's going to take a loss on his home ownership investment due to a neighbouring low-income rental-housing project.

City councillors said they want to hear back from staff on several issues before third reading of the bylaw zoning amendment.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 15, 2008, 4:39 PM

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/citygovernment/resources/devstats2008303.jpg

Does anyone know were this is? It looks like brookside drive with west hills on the right but im not shure.

kirjtc2

Jul 15, 2008, 5:07 PM

Yup, that's what it looks like to me.

mylesmalley

Jul 15, 2008, 6:12 PM

By the looks of the clearing, I'd have to agree too.
They definitely look like a golf course under construction

cl812

Jul 15, 2008, 7:40 PM

you can see the brookside mini home park in the top left corner as well

Freddypop

Jul 16, 2008, 12:39 AM

Yes. This is West Hills with the new golf course. This photo however is a year old. Golf course has progressed and the front 9 hols will open to the public in the spring next year. They actually will be playable by september of this year but owner will likely wait till next May to ensure all the greens are stable.

kirjtc2

Jul 17, 2008, 2:18 PM

City's planning committee OKs two proposals
Published Thursday July 17th, 2008
A2
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

A proposal from Fredericton Non-Profit Housing Corp. to convert Turner House, owned by St. Paul's United Church, into four units of affordable housing for seniors has been approved by the city's planning advisory committee.

The church was planning to tear down the home and return it to green space, sparking concerns in the neighbourhood about altering the look of York Street.

City council must ratify the planning advisory committee decision made Wednesday night. After that, it will still be up to the church congregation and church hierarchy to decide the fate of the property.

The 140-year-old house was acquired in 1976 when local physician Dr. Cecil Turner decided to sell it to the church, of which he was a member. He reserved a right to lease the house and, after his death, his widow Dolly Turner continued to lease the home until her death in 2005. It has been vacant since.

No church nor non-profit housing representatives appeared to speak on the application and committee members accepted the recommendation of staff to grant an amendment to the TP-3 zone for the project. The zone normally allows for only two units.

In other committee decisions, Christ Church (Parish) Church was granted a variance to turn a large lot at 346 Kings College Rd. into two lots over the objections of more than a dozen neighbours.

Kings College resident Paul Blackmore said neighbours are concerned that by creating a second, smaller-than-normal city building lot, it could attract the construction of a two-unit rental property because of the street's proximity to the university campuses.

"We feel the decision of the planning advisory committee is not in the best interests of the neighbourhood as it exists in the area. There's perhaps a greater interest in tax revenues than in the need to keep neighbourhoods family-oriented," Blackmore said after the decision.

"The area is under pressures for obvious reasons and we feel that it's important that the city ... would have a greater plan on how to accommodate that. There's no evidence of any greater plan."

---------------------

City may modify rink plan again
Published Thursday July 17th, 2008
Budget | Rising steel prices may force design changes
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Ottawa-based Centre Line Architects will be in Fredericton today to meet with city hall staff - and they'll have to come with pencils sharpened.

The designers of the proposed arena, named for local hockey star Danny Grant, have to come up with a concept for the southside sports and leisure complex that will stick to the original $20.6-million budget.

That budget, however, was struck nearly five years ago before the staggering hike in petroleum prices, which has escalated the cost of all steel-based construction products, from nails to beams.

"We're going to take a look at the site today. Everything has been cleared and grubbed," said community services director Wayne Tallon.

"We have been directed to remain within the original $20.6-million budget. That's going to be a little tough."

Tallon said he hopes the lessons learned from building Willie O'Ree Place, the city's first new rink in four decades, will come in handy.

The architects have been asked to look at alternatives to structural steel, including wood trusses and beams.

Four years ago, there was a 40 per cent premium to use wood rather than steel in building an arena, Tallon said, but that's no longer the case.

Other rumoured options for scaling back the rink include cutting back on the original plan to make it a 2,500-seat centre.

Centre Line has also had to adapt to a change of location. The Ottawa-based firm, which designed the Corel Centre and came up with the concept for Willie O'Ree Place on Cliffe Street, was originally told to design a dual-pad ice rink at Doak Road on a hilly lot owned by the city.

But in 2006, Mayor Brad Woodside and University of New Brunswick president Dr. John McLaughlin hammered out a deal to relocate the southside sports centre to Kimble Drive and Alison Boulevard under a $1 per year, 99-year lease with UNB.

That, coupled with the need for soil and topographical studies on the new site, plus environmental checks, has pushed back the construction start on the rink. Fredericton city councillors also bowed to lobbying from sports interest groups who argued that now is the time to build an Olympic-sized ice surface, plus an NHL-sized rink.

Smevo

Jul 19, 2008, 8:51 PM

I think a meetup might be in order?

I'd be up for that. I have just about a week left in town before heading west, so that may be a bit short notice. If you guys do have a meet, take lots of pictures.

As for place, somewhere all ages? It seems we have some <19's in this thread, so it'd be nice for them to have a place where they could be included this time (I was admittedly a bit short-sighted on that last time).

mylesmalley

Jul 20, 2008, 3:44 PM

I'd be up for that. I have just about a week left in town before heading west, so that may be a bit short notice. If you guys do have a meet, take lots of pictures.

As for place, somewhere all ages? It seems we have some <19's in this thread, so it'd be nice for them to have a place where they could be included this time (I was admittedly a bit short-sighted on that last time).

I'm still game. Unfortunately, I'm back in Moncton for work. I'd only be able to go on saturday or sunday which I'm guessing wn't work for you?

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 20, 2008, 3:56 PM

Trail blazers
Published Saturday July 19th, 2008
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN

Some of the city’s big-ticket items — a $4-million walking bridge on the old Carleton Street Bridge piers and a $1.3-million structural steel pedestrian overpass over the old Trans- Canada Highway between Skyline Acres and the University of New Brunswick — aren’t givens.

Mayor Brad Woodside said these kinds of financial decisions are long range and indefinite.

What’s important is to start thinking in terms of becoming a more foot-power conscious community, said Woodside.

“It is a guide for the City of Fredericton for the future which will addressa lot of important and strategic needs in our community,” he said.

“It’s long overdue. I’ve travelled to other communities and seen designated bicycle lanes and things like that that we haven’t had.”

The recent approval of the plan doesn’t commit the city to spending the $565,000 needed per year to fully implement the plan.

“This is all budget-driven, that’s why there’s no specific time lines in the document. We’ll implement bits and pieces of it, as budget permits,” said community services director Wayne Tallon.

What the plan can accomplish at minimal cost is thinking about old things in new ways.

At the Corbett Centre, the University of New Brunswick’s new retail development on Regent Street, a twisting, wider-than-normal, asphalt walking path runs parallel to Regent Street instead of a traditional concrete sidewalk. It will ultimately encircle the retail development.

“It really does look neat,” said UNB campus planning and services property manager Mike Baldwin.

Creating the three-metre-wide multi-purpose trail was mutually agreed upon with the city and it’s part of thinking ahead to where a trail will take people, he said.

From UNB’s perspective, bikers, walkers and runners will use the multi-purpose trail to reach the retail area, through to wooded conservation lands owned by the university and the neighbouring Knowledge Park cluster of information-technology businesses.

In the long term, when all the links are connected, it will make an impact, Baldwin said.

The city’s 20-year trails and bikeways plan pictures two giant loops around Fredericton, an inner downtown walking circle and a larger ring of the city’s circumference. It will result in an interconnected 227- kilometre network of trails, bikeways, parks, environment and recreational corridors.

In the short term, the city is looking at mini-projects. So far this year, a portion of trail on the north side of the St. John River from the railway walking bridge to Gibson Street has been paved, Tallon said.

Downtown Fredericton and the city will look at twinning a section of riverfront gravelled path between the city-owned lighthouse centre and the downtown pedway behind the Fredericton Public Library.

Internally, city hall has formed an interdepartmental committee to study which portions of trail would be better paved and which would be better left in gravel.

Bicycling lanes, dedicated or shared, are the new buzz words in city hall lingo. So is the phrase active transportation. The lingo means that trails shouldn’t just be walkways for a casual stroll. The trails and bikeways master plan sees the interconnection of walkways as a means to get people to and from shopping and work and leaving cars at home.

Because consultants SGE Acres Ltd.

and Marshall Macklin Monaghan see the need for the trails to cater to many types of users and uses — including people with physical disabilities — it’s their advice to the city that 38 kilometres of the city’s 80-kilometres of trail be paved at an average cost of $45,000 over the 20-year period.

It’s tough to find opponents of the city’s devotion to trail building. In citizen attitude surveys, the trails are consistently rated as important and in the most recent 2007 review, 86 per cent of citizens said they use the trails.

Not just outdoor enthusiasts rate trail and cycling as important, but Fredericton’s business community considers them an economic asset.

“We see the trails as being an important community asset, in terms of healthy living for our citizens and exhibits some of the great assets of the community,” said Anthony Knight, chief executive officer of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce, “Employers highlight the fact that we have such a vibrant community and the trail system is a key attribute of that. They see it as a key aspect of quality of life.”

===========================

If we build it, will they come?
Published Saturday July 19th, 2008

That's one of the questions the city's new trails and bikeways master plan contemplates.

SGE Acres Ltd., the Halifax consulting firm that wrote the city's $49,989 study with help from Toronto consultants Marshall Macklin Monaghan, says education and promotion have to be part of an active transportation plan.

Active transportation means creating walkways that aren't just geared to strolling tourists or leisurely walks, but are used by people to get to and from work, walk to shop, go to restaurants and generally use foot power over vehicle power.

Over 20 years, the plan proposes to take Fredericton from its existing 80 kilometres of trails to 126 kilometres of interconnected walkways, 30 kilometres of reserved bicycle lanes and signed bicycle lanes which are shared with parked cars in residential areas.

But if you want people to ditch cars, you have to start teaching them young that road etiquette, respect for cyclists and a desire to walk are all good things, the consultants point out.

"There can be an underlying assumption that walkers and wheelers should not be in the road and the City of Fredericton, including educators and law-enforcement officers, need to work to change these views if all modes of transportation are to be accepted as legitimate users of the street network," the report says.

City transportation committee chairman Coun. Bruce Grandy says in order to promote more bicycle use and safe shared use of roadways, education is critical.

But he sees the effort as worthwhile as part of the city's work to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

"It's going to feed into more green transportation," Grandy said recently.

While the city is launching a general advertising program as it launches its first dedicated cycling lanes, the consultants suggest adopting methods already embraced elsewhere in the country.

To learn more about the city's trails and bikeways master plan, you can visit the City of Fredericton's website at www.fredericton.ca and use its search icon to find the link for trails and bikeways plan.

Here are some of their ideas.

* Approach school boards asking them to encourage students to walk to school or walk to the bus. A safety audit can be done beforehand to ensure there's a safe walking route to and from neighbourhood schools.

* Use games, challenges and rewards programs to encourage walking as a lifelong activity among youth.

* Talk hospitals, health facilities and major employers into thnking and promoting walking and other healthy modes of transportation.

* Partner with developers to include walking connections to commercial areas or to public transit access points.

* Pick routes that can easily connect to shopping or employment nodes or to bus transit links.

* Look to other communities for pre-existing educational tools such as www.capitalbikeandwalk.org or www.pedbikeinfo.org or www.iwalktoschool.org or www.active2010.ca or www.velo.qc.ca

From the Daily Gleaner (dailygleaner.canadaeast.com)

kirjtc2

Jul 21, 2008, 7:38 PM

City council divided over park project
Published Monday July 21st, 2008
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Four Fredericton city councillors have refused to support an expropriation of land to add to the city's Killarney Lake holdings.

Wendell Thomas and Sons Ltd. has objected to the city's attempt to expropriate 42 hectares (104 acres) of its land for the park.

The original proposal to expropriate the company's land was passed by city council earlier this year, prior to the May election.

The Thomas family has declined to comment on the planned expropriation.

Killarney Lake is the city's closest freshwater swimming beach. The city hopes to keep the 660 hectares (1,500 acres) it already owns in its natural state. But it wants to acquire 880 hectares (2,200 acres) surrounding the lake for hiking, cross-country skiing, walking and swimming.

Ward 2 Coun. Bruce Grandy and Ward 1 Coun. Dan Keenan said they can't support expropriation because there's no imminent need to acquire the property.

"I'm not a firm believer in expropriation. Unless it's for infrastructure, piping, roads, that kind of thing. I think there's a lot more negotiation that can go on," Grandy said.

"Killarney Lake Park - it's nice to get the land assembled, but we don't have to do it now, but we can keep going and negotiating with these people.

"The Thomases are great people and a great part of our community and I just don't believe in using heavy-handed tactics to go in and get something you don't really need at this point in time," Grandy said.

Councillors Jordan Graham and Eric Megarity also decided not to back the expropriation plan.

"I think we have to use that (expropriation) very sparingly. I think we have to work with people that own property. They have a vested interest. They own the land and they have to have value for their property," Megarity said.

"It might take more time and resources to do that, but just like in business, you have to be customer friendly and I think city hall and council have to view their citizens as customers and treat them with respect," Megarity said.

Expropriating land for essential services is one thing, but for a park, that's stretching the boundaries, Megarity said.

Despite the opposition, a majority of councillors support the move.

The city is trying to acquire more bits and pieces of land between Killarney Lake and municipal boundaries.

At least three pieces of property between the existing nature park and the city are owned by St. Mary's First Nation and cannot be expropriated because they are federal Crown land.

Smevo

Jul 22, 2008, 4:54 AM

^I agree with the four councillors that didn't support the expropriation. For infrastructure, yes. If the city grew out and surrounded the park, yes. But neither of those are the case.

I'm still game. Unfortunately, I'm back in Moncton for work. I'd only be able to go on saturday or sunday which I'm guessing wn't work for you?

I think I may have to sit this one out if it happens. We're going to Moncton to visit family on Friday or Saturday, and with me supposed to leave Monday, I don't think the wife will forgive me if I don't spend her weekend off with her.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 23, 2008, 6:58 PM

Contractors Have until August 7 to Express Interest in East End Project

http://www.fredericton.ca/en/ecodev/resources/ConferenceCentrejuly2008-303.jpg

Fredericton (July 23, 2008) - Contractors interested in bidding on components of the City's East End Development project have until August 7, 2008 to submit an expression of interest to ADI Limited, the company hired by the City of Fredericton to manage construction of the conference centre, office building and parking structure complex.

"Our pre-qualification process requires contractors to indicate the type of work in which they are interested, their capacity to perform the work, details of their safety programs and previous work experience," said Greg Cook, the City's Director of Special Capital Projects. "Those firms deemed to have adequate expertise and acceptable experience will be put on our pre-qualified list and invited to participate in the tendering process that is expected to follow shortly."

Tender packages will be issued in the coming weeks for different components of the construction process including:

• Sheet Piling

• Superstructure - Steel and concrete

• Building envelope - Pre-cast cladding, roofing, and curtain wall

• Pre-cast Parking Structure

• Mechanical systems - Heating, cooling, sprinkler, plumbing, building controls

• Electrical systems - Power, distribution, communication, data, security, lighting

• Interior Construction - Partitions, drywall, doors, hardware, ceilings, specialties

• Finishes - Painting, flooring, casework

• Landscaping and site work

• Generator, kitchen equipment, elevators, escalators, boilers

Contractors wishing to get on the pre-qualified list should submit a completed Contractors Qualification Statement (Form CCDC 11-1996 - available on the www.ccdc.org website) to ADI International, 1133 Regent Street, Suite 300, Fredericton, N.B. E3B 3Z2, no later than August 7, 2008.

The East End Development project will feature a 6,500m² Conference Centre, a 17,000m² Office Building,

and a 450-car parking structure. The Conference Centre and Office Building are being designed and constructed to LEED Silver Certification, a high-level of energy efficiency. Construction is scheduled to begin in September 2008 and be complete by fall 2010.

From fredericton.ca

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 23, 2008, 9:31 PM

Well it's about time...

CBC News (cbc.ca)
Construction of Nashwaak-Marysville bypass begins

Work has started on a 36-kilometre bypass that was promised more than 30 years ago for the Marysville area of Fredericton.

Federal and provincial governments have been promising since the '70s to build the bypass to divert logging and transport truck traffic from Route 8, which runs through the residential area of Marysville.

But as different governments were voted in and out of power, the project has repeatedly been put on hold.

A five-year funding agreement for the project has finally allowed construction of the $124-million bypass to begin.

A sod-turning ceremony was held in Fredericton on Wednesday. The project is expected to be completed by 2015.

"We are pleased that construction on the long-awaited Nashwaak-Marysville bypass is finally beginning," said Minister of Transportation Denis Landry.

Nancy Hicks, who owns a home in the area, said she is happy the project will finally go ahead.

"It's very dangerous when the transports are coming around the corners, so we're all looking forward to it," Hicks said.

The new access-controlled highway will bypass the existing Route 8 from Marysville to South Portage along the east side of the Nashwaak River.

The change is expected to eliminate trucking traffic through the residential community of Marysville and also to relieve traffic congestion.

It will decrease travel time and reduce accidents in the area, Landry said.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Jul 24, 2008, 8:05 PM

CBC News (cbc.ca)
Conservationists question why work continues at Fredericton bog

New Brunswick conservationists are demanding to know why a Fredericton businessman was apparently given permission to develop a property that includes a wetland.

The wetlands are part of a 2.4-hectare patch of land owned by RAR Properties Inc. off Bishop Drive near the Regent Mall.

Al Lacey, a former Liberal cabinet minister in Frank McKenna's government and co-owner of RAR Properties, said the company has reached a compromise with the government that is allowing 1.8 hectares of the land to be filled as long as about 0.8 hectares are left untouched.

In 2004, New Brunswick's Environment Department said the company was not allowed to fill in the land, which is adjacent to an area known as the Regent Street bog. Companies are not allowed to do fill-in work or development within 30 metres of a wetland without a permit issued by the environment minister.

But RAR Properties began its work anyway and was given a cease-and-desist order in 2005. The company was still working inside the buffer zone in 2006 and was fined $1,000 by a judge in 2008 after pleading guilty to violating the Clean Water Act.

Lacey told CBC News when he bought the property there was no wetland in the area but other developments have now pushed water onto his land.

"I'm really disappointed that this has been allowed to go ahead," said Megan de Graaf, watershed project co-ordinator with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

The Environment Department declined to comment on if a permit has been issued to RAR Properties or explain why the work is now allowed to proceed. A spokesperson for the department said it will not be commenting because of ongoing enforcement action related to the piece of land.

Conservative Leader Jeannot Volpé said he'd also like some explanation on why the work is being allowed to proceed.

"I haven't seen any change in rules so for them now to change the decision, I would like to know from staff from environment why they say they have changed," Volpé said.

kirjtc2

Jul 25, 2008, 4:39 AM

Just read this on Charles LeBlanc's blog...that new office building on Two Nations Crossing will be home to the Department of Family and Community Services.

He points out there's no transit service...of all the departments to move out there, you'd think that's the one that would need it most.

Smevo

Jul 26, 2008, 3:43 AM

^yeah, it's on Fredericton Transit's "future routes" list, but considering they came up with some bogus excuse for not serving Leo Hayes (the buses can't use some street that's nowhere near Leo Hayes), I don't expect it to happen anytime soon.

BradMacD

Jul 27, 2008, 2:32 AM

Is that...
A new rendering?
:o
Hopefully there'll be a bigger picture, soon. :D

kirjtc2

Jul 29, 2008, 4:09 PM

Council votes 7-4 to expropriate land
Published Tuesday July 29th, 2008
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

City councillors voted 7-4 on Monday night to a city plan to expropriate 43 hectares (105 acres) from a Fredericton couple who doesn't want to give up its land.

Coun. Jordan Graham was the most vehement in his opposition to the expropriation of land owned by Bev and Darlene Hazlett.

The city intends to make the land part of its 720-hectare (1,800-acre) Killarney Park.

Graham said the city failed to establish a fair price for the land.

"The fair determination of any private transaction should and can only be characterized by two fundamental principles - the first that the transaction should be voluntary, and secondly that the price is between the maximum that the buyer will pay for it and the minimum that the buyer will accept.

"This is not fair. There's nothing fair about this transaction. Some may consider this extreme, but I look to this as theft."

Graham's comments brought a rebuke from Mayor Brad Woodside, who said while Graham is free to express his views on the expropriation, it's inappropriate to characterize the city's actions as unfair.

"We're trying to be as fair as we can ... We've had the process discussed legally and it's absolutely unfair for anybody to say that (we're not being fair). I really don't think that's the case. I think you're either for or against, " Woodside said.

Coun. Stephen Chase defended the expropriation as necessary to assemble the land required for a public park.

"I think it would be untenable at this stage, this very late in the game, to have acquired these other properties and to leave a remnant in the middle," Chase said.

"Killarney Lake Park is a very important part of the (city's future vision)."

Councillors Dan Keenan, Bruce Grandy and Eric Megarity said the expropriation is unnecessary at this point and prolonged negotiations could lead to the same outcome in time, adding expropriation should only be a tool of last resort.

Coun. Marilyn Kerton said unless the property is acquired now, it might not be protected for future generations to enjoy.

A hearing was held in June before expropriations advisory officer John Larlee.

His job was to hear the Hazletts and the city and make a ruling on whether the expropriation is necessary.

During the hearing, the city said it wanted the land to protect woodland for Killarney Lake Park, assure wetland protection and guard the future of Killarney Lake.

The Hazletts, in turn, said the land has been family-owned for three generations, they have invested in equipment to cut lumber and log their wood, and they've built a network of roads through their land.

The couple said they would negotiate agreements for crossings, but didn't want to give up all their land.

"He (Bev Hazlett) asserts that the city has too much power and that no one should take land unless the owner wishes to sell," Larlee's decision noted.

However, Larlee accepted the city's arguments that the expropriation is justified and needed to assure the safety and security of the future park.

Before the expropriation is complete, the Hazletts will be able to present their appraiser's report before the expropriations advisory board.

The city will also be given the opportunity to present an appraiser's report.

After that, the board will make a determination on what price the city will pay to purchase the land.

mylesmalley

Jul 29, 2008, 5:06 PM

mylesmalley

Jul 29, 2008, 10:47 PM

Local flight college gets 5 more planes
Published Tuesday July 29th, 2008

A2
By The Daily Gleaner

The Moncton Flight College has taken delivery of eight new planes.

Five of the Diamond DA20 C1 Eclipses are destined for the school's campus at the Fredericton International Airport, which will bring the size of its fleet there to 17.

The college is managing international flight training contracts worth more than $30 million over the next two years.

mylesmalley

Jul 30, 2008, 11:45 AM

From the Gleaner:

Convention centre project needs more money
Published Wednesday July 30th, 2008

Downtown | City will need to borrow another $2.5 million
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

The City of Fredericton will have to borrow close to $2.5 million more than it estimated four years ago to build its multimillion-dollar convention centre development in the downtown's east end.

STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO
HANGING IT UP: Preparation of the ground for the new convention centre is under way. Here Courtney Cameron, with Jacques Whitford, digs through the ground as part of a Heritage Resource impact assessment as part of an environmental study.
The city has been pegging the construction cost at $63 million for the 6,500-square-metre conference centre, 17,000-square-metre office building and a 450-stall parking garage.

That figure doesn't include the $8 million in non-repayable government money - $4 million federal and $4 million provincial - it will receive.

The figure also doesn't include the $3 million the city has borrowed for land acquisition and $1 million for site preparation and design.

That puts the total estimated cost for the downtown redevelopment project at $77.5 million.

City councillors this week approved a motion to go to the Municipal Capital Borrowing Board, the group that keeps local government borrowing and debt ratios in check, to borrow $65.5 million to fund the development.

"We're a little off some of our original estimates on the conference centre parking garage because of inflation. We made the announcement four years ago," said Coun. Mike O'Brien, the chairman of the city's finance and administration committee.

The city's major capital projects, including the Danny Grant Centre still to be built, are financed under what O'Brien dubs pay-as-we-grow.

The city is forecasting enough expansion in its tax base - the value of all taxable property in Fredericton - that it will be able to pay its 20 years of debt financing from having more property to tax.

"That will pay our financing costs and we're right on track for this," said O'Brien.

City councillors said the new projects won't impact the city's core services or its ability to pay for them.

The city was virtually debt-free before embarking on its capital construction spending spree because of a pay-as-you-go program of paying for capital construction.

But that program only generates about $10 million per year in capital construction dollars. That money is earmarked for road repairs, sidewalk extensions and other typical year-over-year capital improvements.

O'Brien said a large chunk of the city's downtown development project is construction of a provincial government office building.

That $42-million building represents 64 per cent of the city's total borrowing.

But O'Brien said the office building is planned as a not-for-profit development.

"The city will recoup all of the capital construction costs, debt-servicing costs and any other costs associated with this agreement through lease payments. There will be full-cost recovery to the city," O'Brien said.

Mayor Brad Woodside said perimeter fencing will be erected soon to cordon off the site for the office complex's foundation. A sign illustrating the design of the complex will soon be posted.

A two-storey building on Queen Street and Camperdown Lane, dubbed the DiGiacinto property, has been purchased by the city and will be torn down to make way for the convention centre development.

The conference centre and office building will be designed to LEED silver certification, which requires the building to meet certain energy efficiency targets.

Construction is scheduled to begin in September and be complete by fall 2010.

xxFamilyGuyxx

Aug 1, 2008, 8:53 PM

Pay-by-Space Parking Coming to York Street Carpark

Fredericton, NB (July 30, 2008) - The City of Fredericton's new pay-by-space parking system will go live in the York Street Carpark on Tuesday, August 5, 2008.

This follows the successful implementation of the system in the Frederick's Square Parking Garage, the Tannery Parking Lot on King Street, and Brunswick Street Parking Garage during the fall of 2007 and early winter of 2008.

"The new system is essentially like a big parking meter," says Coun. Bruce Grandy, chair of the City's Transportation Committee. "It's easy to use, replaces the old gated parking system, and offers our customers a variety of payment options not available before."

Users of the pay-by-space parking system will simply pull into the carpark and note the number of their parking space, which is clearly shown on the posts in the lot. They will then head immediately to any one of the six pay stations located at the pedestrian exits to the lot, select the amount of parking time needed, pay using a variety of methods (cash - coin or bills, parking tokens or credit card), take their receipt, and head out on their errands.

There is no need for drivers to return to their vehicles to display a receipt, because the system knows which spaces are paid for. Upon return to the carpark, drivers will simply exit the lot. No need to stop. No line-ups. For those who are not sure how much parking time they will need, the best plan is to estimate up. It's cheaper to park in the carpark than on the street.

For individuals who discover they are going to be longer than expected, parking time can be added to the system from any pay station in the city's other parking facilities, using the information on the pay-by-space parking receipt. Parking tickets will be issued for expired time.

"Self-serve parking systems have become the norm across North America," adds Coun. Grandy. "The gated systems at the City parking facilities had become obsolete and impossible to repair. After careful research, this was determined to be the right system for our needs."

Monthly parkers will continue to use the carpark. They will be issued a hang tag to display on their rear view mirror. No job losses will occur because of the system. Parking attendant staff will be redeployed to monitor the system. The system will better automate accounting and statistical practices for the City of Fredericton.

Fredericton City Council awarded a tender for the new pay-by-space parking system to Digital Payment Technologies Corp., on July 23, 2007 at a cost of $266,122.40, HST included, plus an annual recurring charge of $19,152, HST included. A new gated system would have cost in the neighbourhood of $750,000.

The City of Fredericton parking services division manages 1,985 parking stalls. The municipal supply includes 466 on-street parking spaces, 894 stalls in the Frederick Square and Brunswick Street parking garages, and 625 stalls in surface parking lots - 249 of which are in the York Street Carpark.

From fredericton.ca

cl812

Aug 5, 2008, 1:28 PM

FYI
Heard on the Radio yesterday, the new Dollarama store in the Corbett Centre opens today.

kirjtc2

Aug 9, 2008, 4:47 PM

Development protester plans public demonstration at bog
Published Saturday August 9th, 2008
A3
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

A Fredericton resident who opposes development on wetlands owned by the University of New Brunswick and by private land holders intends to make a public demonstration of his concerns.

Mark D'Arcy said despite assurances from the provincial government that RAR Properties Inc. is complying with a restoration order that requires it to leave a 30-metre buffer of the wetland at its Bishop Drive property, no restoration work has occurred.

To dramatize the lack of action, D'Arcy said at 11 a.m. Monday morning, he'll be at the Regent Street bog where it borders RAR Properties Inc.'s site at 585 Bishop Dr.

D'Arcy said he'll mark off the 30-metre buffer from the edge of the wetland next week and then he'll remove the fill for an hour every day with a shovel and two buckets.

"The Regent Street bog is part of the critical watershed and catchment area that makes the UNB woodlot so important to Fredericton," D'Arcy said.

"Not only does this watershed contribute to our aquifer - the sole drinking water supply for the City of Fredericton - but this giant sponge for severe rain events is our insurance policy against climate change."

He said there's "a development frenzy" around these wetlands, which must be protected.

"This is Fredericton's watershed, and the public must be vigilant for clear environment policy and management objectives by the Province of New Brunswick," D'Arcy said.

Just as the province has told uranium-mining companies they can't explore near watersheds and private wells, there must be protection for watersheds in an urban setting, he said.

"Right here, in the middle of the capital city, it is hardly reassuring to see our watershed impacted like this," D'Arcy said.

The New Brunswick Conservation Council has issued its own warning about the intrusion of development into the boggy area atop Regent Street.

RAR Properties has been fined for violating the Clean Water Act for an earlier infilling of its property.

D'Arcy has posted a YouTube video and chronology of the wetland infilling.

--------------------------------------

Unemployment rate rises
Published Saturday August 9th, 2008
A1
By MARC HUDON
hudon.marc@dailygleaner.com

OTTAWA - The unemployment rate in Fredericton edged up slightly as the local economy shed 700 jobs in the past year, says a labour-force analyst with Statistics Canada.

Unemployment in the capital for July was 4.1 per cent, up 0.2 per cent from the same time last year.

About 51,500 people were working in the region in July.

Meanwhile, New Brunswick was one of four provinces to see its workforce expand in July, as 2,000 people found work and 2,700 more New Brunswickers held jobs than a year earlier.

Older workers also continued their strong contribution to the economy, with about 4,000 workers over 55 years old joining the workforce in the past 12 months.

The number of older workers in New Brunswick continues to flourish, expanding eight per cent since last year while outpacing national growth by a full percentage point.

Meanwhile, fewer people aged 15 to 24 were working as 2,800 left the labour force.

The unemployment rate stood at 8.8 per cent in July, down almost a full percentage point from June.

Ferrao said most employment gains were made in the service sector, including health care, transportation and warehousing.

"The fact that our labour-force numbers are up substantially - by 9,300 compared to July 2007 - reflects that more people want to make meaningful contributions to this province's economy," said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Ed Doherty.

However, Ferrao said Canada once-red hot economy has cooled significantly since the beginning of the year.

"There were strong gains throughout 2007," he said.

"But so far it has leveled off during the first seven months of this year."

Canada's unemployment rate fell slightly in July to 6.1 per cent as the economy shed 55,000 jobs.

Statistics Canada said job losses in July were neutralized by the number of young Canadians who left the job market.

corda

Aug 12, 2008, 7:36 PM

FYI
Heard on the Radio yesterday, the new Dollarama store in the Corbett Centre opens today.

And the new Montana's beside it opens next Tuesday, Aug 19th.

kirjtc2

Aug 14, 2008, 2:46 PM

Study to examine uses for York House
Published Thursday August 14th, 2008
A3
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Future uses for 114-year-old York House will be studied once the city acquires the property.

The legal steps needed to complete land purchases and swaps between the city and Brunswick Street Baptist Church, which owns York House, are in their final stages.

In 2007, the church obtained a demolition permit to rip down the York Street brick building and expand the church. But the city stepped in to try to facilitate the purchase of neighbouring homes to provide the church the land it needs for its project and spare York House from the wrecker's ball.

Fredericton's corporate services director Jane Blakely said once the city owns York House, it will conduct a space-needs analysis and figure out if it wants to use the building for government office space or include a public-use component.

"We haven't had any discussions with council about what's going to go in the building," Blakely said.

It's no secret that city hall bureaucracy has outgrown the historic city hall building on Queen Street. Community services staff are located at 335 Queen St. in a city-owned building. Tourism has its own building at 11 Carleton St. owned by the city. Information-technology and corporate services staff are in rented quarters on Rookwood Avenue in a building owned by CARIS and some property services staff are in rented quarters in the industrial park.

There's a parks and trees depot at Two Nations Crossing and transit staff have their own home. Police and fire services are housed in two main buildings, and the fire department also has an assortment of other fire halls and rented quarters.

Blakely said once the city acquires York House, the first task will be to ensure that the structure is weather-tight.

Since the city intends to fund repairs to the building from its pay-as-you-go capital budget, the cash allocated for the building will be limited, she said.

Once exterior repairs are done, the city will have to move forward on electrical, plumbing and other major repairs in years to come.

York house was designed by James C. Dumaresq, the same Halifax architect who designed the 1882 legislative assembly building on Queen Street.

Brunswick Street Baptist Church is anxious to move forward on a project it's had in its sights for several years.

--------------------------

Dam's demolition still months away, says Woodside
Published Thursday August 14th, 2008
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

The demolition of the Campbell Creek dam in Marysville isn't going to occur overnight and citizens who oppose its removal will have a chance to air their concerns, says Mayor Brad Woodside.

He said it's likely to take up to a year by the time an environmental assessment and other red tape is cleared to tear down the structure.

City councillors voted Monday to authorize the dam's demolition under a deal with the provincial Transporation Department.

The provincial department has to come up with an environmental project to compensate for work it's doing on the Highway 8 truck bypass between Marysville and South Portage.

The province has offered to pay the tab to tear down the dam once the city calls tenders.

Marysville resident Tom Hickey, whose River Street home is nestled in the woods beside the structure, opposes its removal and is ready to rally citizens to the cause.

Woodside said he agrees with Marysville Coun. Steven Hicks that while beautiful, the dam - which the city acquired in 1985 - needs repairs and isn't safe.

Hicks is familiar with the dam's location and has done his homework on the issue, Woodside said.

It would cost between $300,000 and $500,000, Woodside said, and that's just too hefty a bill for taxpayers to swallow.

"We have looked at the dam and asked ourselves, 'Why do we have a dam? Why is it necessary? What is the purpose of it?' And, we have concluded it's not very smart to put taxpayers' money into this facility for no reason," Woodside said.

It makes sense to take advantage of the province's offer to pay the bill to demolish it and relieve the city of safety and liability concerns, he said.

"This will be preceded by an environmental assessment to ensure that it is done under the strictest of environnmental rules and regulations. I would anticipate that the dam will be removed next year," Woodside said.

The mayor said he has talked to Hickey about his views.

"If the people of Marysville have a very strong or legitimate reason why this structure should be kept and maintained and paid for, we're certainly open to hearing that," Woodside said.

"For the most part, people don't even know it exists and there is a liability that we are not happy to incur if people happen to be on the property," Woodside said.

The dam is bordered on either side by two private properties. Hickey told The Daily Gleaner that he welcomes visitors to see the dam, which isn't visible from River Street.

Campbell Creek flows into the Nashwaak River.

Woodside said he believes there can be greater environmental benefits to the river system by eliminating the dam, rather than spending money to retain it.

cl812

Aug 17, 2008, 6:25 PM

Freddypop

Aug 17, 2008, 8:11 PM

Some activity has started at the old northside Canadian Tire, there is some equipment in the parking lot and they were working inside the old garage the other day. Hopefully Princess Auto is going in there.

Saw that as well. Not sure what exactly is going on although I have heard from a solid source that CC has the building until the end of August. Perhpas they are doing final clean up. Not sure what happens on Sept 1 but can assume that there is a new owner otherwise there would have been a "For Sale" sign up a long time ago. As for new owners I have heard the Princess Auto rumour but also that MaClean Sports Equipment might be relocating there from their current Union Street location

kirjtc2

Aug 18, 2008, 1:41 PM

Yet more NIMBYs that try to stop anything and everything. How tall is the old Hartt factory - it's practically across the street!

Resident says building will 'tower over rest of block'
Published Monday August 18th, 2008
A4
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

The fur may fly Wednesday as downtown residents learn more details of a variance application for a 44-unit apartment building proposed for 362 Victoria St.

The city's planning advisory committee is slated to hear a request from developer Tony George and his architectural firm Smyth Design Inc. for lot coverage, front, side and rear-yard variances to permit the building to be constructed.

The planning advisory committee - a body which provides advice to city council on zoning changes, subdivisions and other planning matters - has the legal authority to grant the variances and approve the development.

The project wouldn't have to go to city council for final approval.

Alex Frank has fired off a letter to city planners on behalf of his parents, David and Janet Frank of York Street, opposing the construction of a building which will become one of the city's tallest structures.

"What's being proposed is an eight-storey building that will tower above the rest of the block," Alex Frank said in an interview.

Given the number of variances requested, it's clear the building is too large for the lot, Frank said.

"It will have a height of 75 feet, making it one of the tallest buildings in the entire city. The Lord Beaverbrook Hotel is 'only' seven storeys tall," Frank said in a letter to city planners.

A ninth level will be for underground parking.

Homes on surrounding streets such as York, Victoria, Dundonald and Westmorland, are zoned TP-4, which permits residential and small-scale multiple or triple housing units, Frank said.

Heights are limited to nine metres within that zone, he said.

"The building the developers are proposing is two-and-a-half times the maximum allowable height for the rest of the block," Frank said. "It will literally tower above the trees, block out the sun and cast a long shadow on the yards and gardens of all residents on the block."

But the city's planning department says the zoning on the Victoria Street property - currently occupied by an old warehouse - is mixed use which permits commercial or residential development and allows for up to eight storeys without any zoning amendment.

Residents haven't seen the planning report relating to the proposal and Frank is calling for discussion on the project to be postponed.

The development should go closer to a major intersection in the downtown or on a larger vacant site with extensive grounds and park area, he said.

mylesmalley

Aug 18, 2008, 1:50 PM

What gives? It's not like there's a giant hill two blocks up the road that casts a shadow over the entire neighborhood. Oh wait...

I do think that would fit better downtown though.

These anti-shadow people drive me nuts.

sdm

Aug 18, 2008, 2:30 PM

8 stories, and thats too high. When will people learn the cost of land needs to be spread out over more area, and creating less of a sprawl (foot print) is more environmentally substainable development.

cl812

Aug 18, 2008, 2:45 PM

Could not agree more, it seems like the city always turns down anything over 4-5 floors, which makes no sense when the city claims to be "Green", which im sure will be the case for this development as well, just because a couple people complain. I say if dont like living next to taller buildings then move away from the downtown area.

ErickMontreal

Aug 18, 2008, 6:23 PM

What a progressive city you live in, is it ?

Seriously, its a bit shamefull but nevertheless it appears someone actually is willing enough to propose something higher than 5-story. Here in Moncton we still waiting for !

kirjtc2

Aug 18, 2008, 6:45 PM

corda

Aug 18, 2008, 7:06 PM

Build it! It's not as if the lot is on a cul de sac or in the suburbs adding traffic the area can't handle. It's downtown between two busy streets, York and Westmorland. I would like to see more buildings like this proposed for downtown.

mylesmalley

Aug 18, 2008, 7:06 PM

Erick: I really think this building would be approved without a hitch if it were anywhere in the city except there. The people that live in that part of the city complain about anything and everything they propose there.

Remember "Save our Street" on Dundonald, or the hoops Sobeys had to go through to build that store on Regent? Insane.

It's not like it's all that great a neighborhood. There are industrial buildings along York St. and the decrepit abandoned train station is just around the corner...

This whole thing does beg the question 'why isn't this guy trying to build a giant building off hanwell or something'.

BradMacD

Aug 18, 2008, 11:13 PM

I don't see what's wrong with it.
If our city is so green, then this is the way to go.
Sprawl = pollution and...well...sprawl.
AND DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS!

So yeah, built it n' stuff.

Does anyone have a rendering? 8D

mylesmalley

Aug 18, 2008, 11:21 PM

I saw a rendering on the CBC news...very nice looking building.

kirjtc2

Aug 19, 2008, 1:09 PM

Steak and rib joint opens today
Published Tuesday August 19th, 2008
A6
By KRIS MCDAVID
mcdavid.kristofer@dailygleaner.com

The newest addition to Fredericton's restaurant scene opens its doors today.

Montana's Cookhouse - a Hamilton, Ont.-based chain that specializes in steaks and ribs - has almost 80 restaurants across Canada and the U.S., including Moncton and Saint John.

Gregory Plester, general manager of the Fredericton location, said he and his staff are looking forward to making a good first impression.

"Since Montana's arrived on the East Coast, people have really welcomed it with open arms, and we're really excited to be here in Fredericton," said Plester.

He said the hunting-lodge style cookhouse, located at 6 Trinity Ave. in the Corbett Centre development, seats almost 210 people and has about 100 employees.

"All of the managers and trainers who have been out here to help out can't stop talking about the East Coast charm, so I think that certainly goes a long way with our brand and what we believe in as well," he said.

Plester said the restaurant hours are 11 a.m. to midnight from Sunday to Thursday, with extended hours Fridays and Saturdays until 1 a.m., depending on how busy it is.

"We want to make Montana's a destination at all hours of the day, and we're encouraging people to come in and take advantage of our restaurant menu, as well as our signature bar," Plester said.

Ron Craig, director of guest experience for Montana's eastern Canada locations, said he's confident the restaurant will be a hit with local diners.

"It's our third location in New Brunswick and we've had some great success in other parts of the province," said Craig.

"We're fairly confident that Fredericton will be a very positive location for us as well."

Craig said Montana's sponsors a reading-incentive program for schoolchildren called Camp Read Well.

Teachers who sign up for the free program assign monthly reading goals to their students, who then receive a free kids meal from Montana's when the goals are met.

"It's just a program to encourage kids to pick up a book, and reading is a great activity to push and something that we've had involvement in for the past five or six years," said Craig.

Montana's Cookhouse is the third business to open in the Corbett Centre: Home Depot opened in 2006 and a Dollarama store opened Aug. 5.

Other businesses planned for the 18-hectare (45-acre) development include: East Side Mario's, Michael's, Winners, Petcetera, Linen 'N Things and a warehouse club.

-----------------------------------

Fredericton airport continues to grow
Published Tuesday August 19th, 2008
D1
By The Daily Gleaner

The Fredericton International Airport registered the largest year-over-year increase in flight numbers among airports in its class for July.

Figures released Monday by Statistics Canada show the number of aircraft movements increased by 173.2 per cent to 6,463 movements (takeoffs and landings) recorded in July. That's 4,097 more flights than the same month in 2007.

Of the 53 flight service stations in the country, Fredericton was the fourth busiest.

Burgeoning flight numbers at the airport over the last year are largely due to the growth of a flight college that established a campus at the airport last summer. Moncton Flight College's Fredericton campus began with 21 students in July 2007 and has steadily increased its numbers to more than 140 students.

Fredericton's numbers make it busier than 11 of the 42 airports with NAV CANADA towers.

BradMacD

Aug 19, 2008, 9:45 PM

Oooh.
Maybe it'll be on the interwebz soon.
What is it like?
Brick? Cement? Glassssss? :o
Freddy needs more glass buildings.
But then again. A glass apartment building.
How silly.

mylesmalley

Aug 20, 2008, 2:25 AM

From the quick shot they showed on tv, it looked to be mostly brick with some kind of panelling further up

kirjtc2

Aug 20, 2008, 1:30 PM

Corbett Centre comes to life
Published Wednesday August 20th, 2008
D1
By KRIS MCDAVID
mcdavid.kristofer@dailygleaner.com

The Corbett Centre retail development is beginning to show signs of life.

The University of New Brunswick leased approximately 18 hectares (45 acres) of land to developers Trinity Development Inc. and RioCan.

Montana's Cookhouse opened its doors Tuesday, and Dollarama started up Aug. 5.

Home Depot has been open in the Corbett Centre since the summer of 2006.

This September, other businesses are expected to open, including an East Side Mario's restaurant, a Michael's craft store, a Petcetera pet store, and a Linens 'N Things home decor centre.

The local Winners branch located in the Smythe Street Canadian Tire Plaza will also move to the new uptown development.

"Our opening date is Sept. 16 and we're moving because we wanted more space to provide a greater selection of merchandise for our customers," said Dana Scott, manager of Winners.

"We've been at this location for seven years, and it's been great, but it'll be nice to move into a new building and get a fresh new look."

Scott said the new location will provide the business with about 550 square metres of space, and will feature more of everything for its customers.

"It'll have an expanded home department and just a lot more merchandise and obviously clothing as well," said Scott. "We're phenomenally excited to get over there."

Dan Benoit, a spokesman for East Side Mario's, said construction on the Italian restaurant has been dampened by weather, but the business is still on track for its target opening date of Sept. 3.

"At one point we actually had to tent off the whole building so that we could get some work done, but things are looking good," said Benoit.

Benoit said the owners of the Fredericton franchise, Dana Harper and Denis Pope, are hiring staff and preparing for the start date.

"They're like kids before Christmastime right now, which is great," said Benoit.

Red Yu, a spokesman for Vancouver-based pet-specialty store Petcetera said it's targeting a grand opening date of Sept. 27, but the store could be open as early as Sept. 8.

A spokeswoman for Dallas, Tex.-based Michael's, an arts and craft specialty store with locations in Saint John and Moncton, said it's hopeful to have the Fredericton location up and running by Sept. 20.

Attempts to reach representatives from Linens 'N Things by phone on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

A proposed warehouse club-style facility may also open at the site.

----------------------

Exhibition grounds open to talking about market move
Published Wednesday August 20th, 2008
A1
By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

The manager of Fredericton Exhibition Ltd. says there have been no formal talks about moving the Boyce Farmers Market to the exhibition grounds - yet.

But Brent Briggs said he's heard plenty of speculation that the Fredericton Exhibition Grounds, with its wealth of space for vendors and a large parking lot, could be a good home for the market if it needs to move.

Briggs said he was surprised to hear Tuesday the head of a stallholders association is openly floating the idea.

"I think it's just speculation," Briggs said. "We've never had any formal discussions with them.''

But Briggs isn't discounting the possibility.

"If they ever approached us, our doors would be wide open to talk to them," he said.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea. If it stays there, that'd be great, and if it ever looked at another location, we would swing our doors open. We have the building space and we have the parking space."

The market philosophy would also fit in nicely with the FREX's agricultural mandate.

But the last Briggs heard, everyone involved was still waiting for the province to make a decision on whether to acquire the property.

York County Properties, the non-profit group that owns the market, wants to divest itself of the iconic Saturday morning meeting spot in order to focus on its other responsibility: its nursing home and assisted living units. York County Properties offered the market to the city for $1.5 million.

The province has first rights to any sale and is studying the property. The province recently received an extension until mid-September to consider the purchase.

A government source said the province is still mulling whether to buy the market. The ideal scenario being floated in government circles would see the province acquire the property while the city would oversee its management.

"The province doesn't want to run a market, nor does it have the expertise," said the source. "The city will have to get onboard."

The city has rejected the idea of acquiring the market property.

----------------------

Development encouraging - city
Published Wednesday August 20th, 2008
A6
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

Fredericton's half-year development snapshot is looking rosy as the city experiences continued growth.

The value of construction between January and June is $57.9 million, up from $45.3 million over the same time frame last year.

"It's spread out over all the different sectors, which is very encouraging," said development committee chairman Dan Keenan. "Our commercial numbers are up significantly, about $13 million so far this year, and that's extremely good for our area."

Commercial development means more jobs and more employment, and that drives the housing market, Keenan said.

Commercial construction for the first six months of the year is $16.6 million.

"Our total development numbers are up $12 million more than last year, so that's encouraging as well, and we have some large permits yet to come," the development chairman said.

"I think it just speaks well to the environment in our area that developers have the confidence to come in and build in our community."

Alex Forbes, assistant director of development services, briefed the city's development committee Tuesday on the numbers.

"It's a very balanced growth and that's what we want to see," Forbes told the committee.

The city has had 94 single-family residences built so far this year, bringing total residential housing figures to 231 homes. The housing development split is almost equal between the north and south sides of the city.

After a slow year in 2007, multiple-unit starts so far this year are at 137 units.

But with the flurry of growth in Fredericton comes rising real estate costs.

The value of an average single detached house is $168,725 and that doesn't include the price of a lot.

Fredericton's share of the housing market has also dipped to 37 per cent so far this year, down from a 49 per cent market share last year. That means more homes are being built outside city limits this year compared with last year.

Real estate re-sales are down 10.8 per cent this year. Of the 962 houses on the real estate multiple-listing service, so far 487 have sold. Average resale price is $191,191.

Industrial construction is at $2.4 million, mainly driven by the construction of the Kimble Middle School and development at the University of New Brunswick.

Still to come this year are the city's own building permit for the construction of a $75.5-million downtown convention centre, a main fire hall at Two Nations Crossing and the southside Danny Grant ice hockey arena and sports facility.

In the private sector, an addition to York Manor, the main building of the University of New Brunswick wellness facility called the Currie Centre and a new senior citizens residence at Patience Lane are still to be built.

kirjtc2

Aug 20, 2008, 11:05 PM

caveat.doctor

Aug 21, 2008, 1:58 AM

Some pictures of the DiGiacinto building on Queen St being knocked down to make way for the new convention centre:

http://charlesotherpersonality.blogspot.com/2008/08/digiacinto-building-comes-down-in.html

Yeah, the work is coming along pretty fast. Just a few weeks ago the place was cordoned off (and my parking space expropriated); when I got up this morning the building was still intact, but when I got back - the sidewalk closed itself!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2782060353_bd9b581d97_o.jpg

and suddenly there's new perspectives on the Centennial Building

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2782915710_6266d55794_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2782915828_d97bebebcb_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/2782059907_98099a2782_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3249/2782916074_bcc855ce64_o.jpg

-

Another work-in-progress: I just moved to Fredericton and was hoping to try out the new City of Fredericton Bike Lanes (http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/2008July10BikeLanesPage.asp), but the weather lately hasn't been so cooperative for a full look-see. But from what I've seen so far commuting from home (Queen/Regent) to work (Chalmers hospital) - it's a bit of a work-in-progress.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3127/2782916502_4fcd6be769_o.jpg

The North-South route starts at the bottom of York St. A good choice between busier Regent and Smythe Sts: gives a bit more breathing room from traffic, and it's right in the middle so I don't feel going too much out of my way taking it instead of Regent.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3276/2782060549_84f314bbbd_o.jpg

The route isn't pavement-marked at first, but the street's still reasonably wide, you don't feel like you'd need to rely on a reserved space.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/2782060621_29782acda3_o.jpg

That said, the road's not any wider when they actually start the painted lane, so there's no reason why they couldn't've fit it in closer to Downtown (except cost, I guess).

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3234/2782916834_e6dfbb46fd_o.jpg

Looking at other cyclists in Frederiction, maybe half use helmets, but almost no one has lights/blinkies; I think it was about the same in Regina (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=3068341&postcount=3090), but in Victoria (http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y246/ggphotographs/92-galloping%20goose%20commute/?start=all) they were all pretty standard.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3272/2782060819_75b60cbd83_o.jpg

The lane disappears at the intersections - exactly when you need them most, to establish a space and make right-turning drivers aware of bikes so they don't hook you off. Kind of dangerous.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2782917012_592f940769_o.jpg

But then it reappears on the other side. The York St hill isn't bad - at least, it looks a bit shallower than the Regent and Smythe St hills (looks - haven't biked the other two, just driven). The lighter traffic on York vs Regent/Smythe makes the hill grind a bit less scary.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2782061131_d937fb5fb4_o.jpg

That said, you still do find yourself weaving into traffic because of the strategically-placed ruts and rough patches - how convenient!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2782061381_51b4d56582_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3217/2782061505_87ac67d084_o.jpg

The space is narrower up here in the 'burbs than Downtown:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2782917306_81ee0be381_o.jpg

The route ends at the end of York St meeting Priestman St:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/2782917644_a6678b859e_o.jpg

and though the City of Fredericton Bike Lanes (http://www.fredericton.ca/en/transportation/2008July10BikeLanesPage.asp) map says that Priestman St is signed a share-the-road route, all I saw was the York St marker

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3084/2782917772_28ff700287_o.jpg

So I guess it's not too surprising half the time people ride on the street

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3183/2782918002_2c9aff49e5_o.jpg

and half the time, on the sidewalk

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2782917876_d8957d79b8_o.jpg

Again, similar proportions to Regina; and again, Victoria is almost-exclusively street riding, no sidewalk. (News to me: the NB Motor Vehicle Act (http://www.gnb.ca/acts/acts/m-17.htm) actually doesn't ban bikes from sidewalks like most places; instead, it seems to imply you're supposed to be on the sidewalk. "77(3)No person shall ride on or operate a bicycle on a highway unless the person is wearing a bicycle helmet." So unless you have a helmet, you have to be on the sidewalk!)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/2782062051_f014beba18_o.jpg

Approaching Regent St, the bike route map says that Regent is also supposed to be a signed route, leading to the Regent Mall, but again, nothing there. There is a painted line around the curb, but it's no way wide enough for a proper bike route:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/2782062263_94a15c4c8f_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3170/2782062357_8ca4fd34a9_o.jpg

Another little hill to the Chalmers Hospital, and voila

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/2768924257_854da86a95_o.jpg

It's nice that the university - universities, rather - are so close by. Will be nice when school's back in and the campus services are back open. For now it's a pretty detour on the way home:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3291/2769772592_ca50ef6ee8_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/2769773382_d2eea5c7e2_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/2768924585_f97daa0482_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3129/2769773666_3b1066e782_o.jpg

Overall, even with that nasty hill and the rough-around-the-edges bike route, Fredericton seems like a great cycling place, and the bike routes have some potential. A bit more amenities along the way (eg bike-level traffic control buttons (like pedestrians), water fountains, lanes at the intersections, smoother roads) and it'll be class. How late does the bike season go in Fredericton? I've done Regina in the winter (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=3261203&postcount=3972) without too much problem, but that hill after a coat or three of snow and freezing rain might be a bit more than nasty.

Haven't done the commute to my other work (the military base) yet, but hopefully the next few days will be a bit more reliably fog-free - Lincoln Rd has quite a few narrow shoulders along the way, I don't think I'd chance it on anything less than a crystal clear sunny day. Route review coming soon!

Smevo

Aug 21, 2008, 3:22 AM

^Looks like you're getting the hang of the city. Get used to summer construction on York, Smythe, Regent, and well almost every other major street in Fredericton. The York St hill is definitely a bit shallower than Regent and Smythe. The bike lanes are still a work in progress, they just started putting up the signs maybe 2 months ago if that.

To get out to the base it might be easier to take the trail out to Oromocto Mall, then the Oromocto surface streets from there. You'd get on at the "walking bridge" (the old rail bridge if you haven't become familiar with the name yet), then keep left at the fork on Lincoln Rd after Dunn's Crossing. I think there might be a section that doesn't have the crushed gravel surface yet, but I know through Fredericton and through Oromocto does have a nicely compacted crushed gravel surface. I've never rode the trail that far, but I seem to remember a sign where it crosses Wilsey Rd. saying the crushed gravel surface ends in 0.5 km or something like that.

Hope you're enjoying your time in Fredericton. The winters definitely aren't bike-friendly, unless you like biking through 3 ft of snow. :haha:

BradMacD

Aug 21, 2008, 3:33 AM

Aw, shucks.
I loved the D. Building.
It was so red.
D:

I knew one of the Digiacinto's too.
Oh well.
T'is for the best.

mylesmalley

Aug 21, 2008, 1:54 PM

Seven-storey apartment building gets green light
Published Thursday August 21st, 2008

Opposition | Resident says it’s like having a beast move in
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
mclaughlin.heather@dailygleaner.com

A seven-storey apartment building approved for 362 Victoria St. will rise up into the sky like a too-tall, too-small lighthouse, says Dundonald Street resident Jeanette Robertson.

Speaking on behalf of downtown neighbours who objected to developer Tony George's project Wednesday night at planning advisory committee, Robertson challenged committee members to think about how they'd like a towering building over their homes.

"It's almost like having a beast in your backyard," Robertson said.

Her property will back onto the brick-and-glass apartment building designed by local architect Carl Smyth.

While Robertson praised Smyth's other designs around the city, she said the building is too big for a predominantly residential area, particularly with the style of homes surrounding it.

She also mentioned the additional traffic on local streets.

"Forty-four units, if everyone has a car, that's 44 cars at rush hour potentially," she said.

But planning advisory committee members tried to explain to residents that their hands are tied.

The group unanimously approved the 44-unit, seven-storey building and the variances needed to allow it to be constructed. City council has no say over the committee's decision.

As a matter of legal right, George has the property zoning - mixed-use district zone - to build an eight-storey building on the land. All he would have to do is make his proposed building narrower and taller and it would still fit on the land and in the zone.

George would also have the right to build six storeys with surface parking surrounding the building, which would reduce the amount of grass and shrubbery around the property.

"He has all kinds of fallback positions," said Alex Forbes, assistant director of development services. "The reality is he doesn't need to come to this committee for an eight-storey building, but he'd have to reduce 44 units to 36. If he does that, he can achieve an eight-storey building."

George wrote a letter to the committee saying he would voluntarily reduce the building's height to seven storeys while retaining 44 apartment units and keep the underground parking in recognition of neighbourhood concerns.

George is able to modify his design and still retain 44 apartment units, because some of the apartments have the same internal floor space as a sprawling bungalow and can be scaled back in size.

Smyth said while he sympathizes with the concerns of neighbours, George bought the property in good faith based on its zoning and the fact he could build up to eight storeys of housing. The land could have other uses that would be less desirable than an apartment, including a nightclub or an office building, Smyth said.

Committee member Dan Koncz said by granting minor variances to the front, side and rear of the building lot, the planning advisory committee can ensure that the building is constructed with underground parking, rather than a sea of asphalt and surface parking for cars.

But when Koncz asked Robertson if she would prefer six storeys with an asphalt lot or the seven storeys, Robertson described the choice as ludicrous.

Even at six storeys, that's like taking two homes on Waterloo Row and stacking them on top of each other, she said.

Citizen member Zona Bovingdon said she understood neighbourhood frustrations, but more landscaping would be better than more asphalt.