A strategy for growth will be presented to Common Council by late February because every city needs one. That message was delivered to the Plan SJ open house which attracted a good turnout.
Urban designer Mark Reid says since the Second World War growth in Saint John has been outward with negative consequences for the core of the city with disinvestment and depopulation. He says there should be a return to the type of development which was taking place pre-war instead of having pockets of isolated residential housing in the rural areas of the city.
Reid advocates what he calls a celebration of the city's many waterfronts with greater access but Gordon Dalzell of the Clean Air Coalition tells CHSJ News he can see a problem with that because the port wants more industrial uses such as the proposed metal shredder on the lower west side.
The plan also calls for retail growth be focused on the McAllister Drive area, north end and Fairville Boulevard with suburban residential growth concentrated in Forest Hills, Lakewood, Millidgeville and Gault Road. The new municipal plan is expected to go before Common Council by the end of next year.
Steve Carson of Enterprise Saint John doesn't think establishing a growth boundary in the the city will inhibit development. Heargues what deters developers is not knowing what the rules are.
