Daring to dream big
Growth From heritage to high-rise housing developments, Saint John has major choices to make about the future of its city centre
John Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
Published Monday October 8th, 2007
Appeared on page C1
It's one of the most architecturally precious neighbourhoods in Canada, one of its oldest, and also one of its poorest.
It's this city's centre - from the tip of the South End to the throughway - and for the first time in recent memory it's starting to show signs of growth. Now there is just one not-so-simple question for the city's leadership and the public they serve: What do you want to do with it?
"There should be some debate on it," said Jim Baird, the city's commissioner of planning and development. "What do people want their community to look like?"
Baird, who spoke at length with the Telegraph-Journal in two recent interviews, says it's time for the public and common council to make some big choices about the future of the south-central peninsula. Should the city focus entirely on low-level infill, or should it be open to high-rise buildings that could change the character of the neighbourhood? What role should heritage play? How can the city use its existing buildings to their full potential? Where does affordable housing fit? And how does Saint John ensure that enough people are coming uptown in the first place?
At stake is the city's continued success during and after any economic boom: leaders argue that a strong, vibrant core benefits the city as a whole, improves tourism, and lessens the need for new infrastructure.
That's why the City of Saint John and its offshoots are dreaming big: the economic development agency Uptown Saint John Inc. hopes for 600 or more new people in the next three years, and over the long-term as many as 2,000 more residents. The city's inner harbour land use plan predicts a need for 500,000 more square feet of residential space. And Coun. Stephen Chase says 1,000 new units should be built in the city centre in the next five years.
"Could it happen?" Baird said of Chase's comments. "You could have 1,000 units, but if you did you'd be redeveloping the southern peninsula, and into something most Saint Johners wouldn't recognize."
He said that if the city focused entirely on in-fill, and didn't build any high-rises of eight stories, 500 units would be more likely.
Baird says discussing the core's future helps on three levels:
* It means council won't be coming at the issue cold the next time they're faced with an uptown development;
* It means the public will have a say in their uptown's future; and
* It means developers will know what they're getting into when they consider building.
Any plan put in place will have more relevance than normal for the simple reason that there is more construction going on in the city than normal, Baird said. He guesses that the council elected in 2008 will face twice as many public hearings as normal, and involving bigger projects, too.
Developers interested in large projects uptown used to get in touch with his department once every two years or so, he said. Now it happens about once a month.
"We're starting to see [construction] proposals come forward," said Baird, who has been a planner with the city for 28 years. "For many years, we could have the debate, but it was an academic debate because you didn't have the proposals of that magnitude."
Several other factors hint at an uptown that is on the verge of growth:
* After a more or less steady decline in population uptown over the last 150 years, the population stabilized and even grew a little in the 2006 census. The census area has changed slightly, but Peter Asimakos of Uptown Saint John Inc. says it looks like the population grew from about 8,100 people in 2001 to between 8,200 and 8,300 now.
* Real estate agent Jason Stephen pointed to the increased number of sales in the south-central peninsula over the last four years. There have been 67 sales so far this year, compared to 60 during the same time period last year, 52 in 2005 and 47 in 2004.
"There's not enough supply out there for demand," Stephen said. "More people would be buying homes on Germain Street if they were there."
* Leinster Court, the new Saint John Non-Profit Housing Inc. building uptown, isn't open yet, but there have already been "30 to 50" people interested in the 26 market-rate apartments, according to Non-Profit's management. (The 26 affordable housing units are already spoken for - no surprise given a waiting list into the hundreds.)
Uptown development was on the minds of several councillors recently as they toured Leinster Court, touted as a perfect example of the low-level in-fill that is one option for the South End. The uptown four-storey building went through a lengthy approval process because neighbours were worried it would affect the character of the streetscape, but councillors Stephen Chase, Ivan Court and Peter McGuire touted the building during the tour as a necessary addition to the uptown.
If more apartment buildings are built in the core, movie theatres and grocery stores will return as the population increases, both Court and Chase said.
The public will get its say about how the plan should unfold this winter. The city plans to consult with the community and merge three of its plans - the uptown plan, the peninsula neighbourhood plan, and the waterfront plan.
Through consultation with the community, the plan sets guidelines for the location and promotion of such things as green space and in-fill housing, as well as commercial, institutional, and port development. Baird wants the plan to be updated during the winter, before his retirement in May.
Whatever the public and council ultimately decide, one thing is for certain - they've got lots of space to play with. In March 2005, then-Uptown Saint John president Mike McGraw said there were "well over" 20 sites suitable for apartment buildings or condo projects and more than a dozen sites for single-family homes. Baird says little has changed since then.
If an urban plan is in place, the heated discussion about the next building like Leinster Court will start one step ahead, Baird said.
"Having a plan provides the context for the debate that will happen."
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