The Gault Road area on the west side of Saint John is a quiet residential neighbourhood filled with mainly single-family homes.
It is that quaintness some residents worry could be lost if a proposed residential development goes ahead.
Mike Cavanagh Homes wants to rezone a section of land at 125 Gault Road, near Valentine Boulevard.
Cavanagh has proposed building nearly 140 apartments spread out among several buildings, along with townhouses and semi-detached dwellings.
More than 30 nearby residents spoke out against the proposal during a nearly four-hour public hearing at Monday’s council meeting.
Wendy Morgan, who has two children, said she is worried about traffic and pedestrian safety if the development were to go ahead.
“I have two children who do walk to the school bus. Right now, they’re walking to the school bus in the dark … and there’s no sidewalks for them to walk on,” Morgan told council.
Morgan said the development should not be approved before a roundabout proposed for Gault Road and Manawagonish Road is in place.
The planning advisory committee recommended that councillors direct city staff to investigate traffic calming and more crosswalks along Gault Road near the development.
It also said the developer should be responsible for installing curb and sidewalk along a section of the western side of Gault Road.
Trish Stokes, who also spoke during the hearing, said she feels this is not the right type of development for the neighbourhood.
“It is important to emphasize that we do support development, however, we are in favour of gentle density that respects and preserves the character of our already-established community,” said Stokes.
“We do not want to see drastic changes that would negatively affect our neighbourhood.”
A number of residents who spoke against the project said they feel the community would support it if it were entirely townhouses and garden homes.
City staff noted the developer did make some adjustments to the project after hearing input from residents.
The number of apartment units was reduced to 136 from 174 and additional townhouse units were added.
Another key concern raised by those living in the area was the development’s potential impact on stormwater runoff.
Jody Kliffer, real estate and development manager at Envision Saint John, was the only person besides the developer to speak in favour of the project.
“We’ve heard a lot tonight about some very valid reasons concerning infrastructure and safety and whatnot … but I want to draw attention to the fact that we’re in a housing crisis and we’re still growing as a community and part of that really is the need for new housing and new housing types,” he said.
Kliffer added what is appealing about this project is the fact it is proposing several different housing types on the same site.
Council passed first and second reading of the rezoning by a vote of 6-4, with Brent Harris, Joanna Killen, Greg Norton and Barry Ogden voting against it.
“At the end of the day, I do think what’s missing in this conversation is a handshake with the community. We don’t have one,” said Harris.
“As a team, I think we need to stop, work with Envision, work with our community and lay out the exact places we want this density to go, when it will go there, how it will go there and what we’re willing to do to fix the communities around it to prepare the way.”
Growth Commissioner Amy Poffenroth said the city took an important step earlier Monday evening by approving rezoning amendments, which include the desire for higher density in existing and future neighbourhoods.
Ogden said he would like to see the developer sit down with the neighbourhood to figure out what would be the best approach for this particular site.
Meanwhile, Norton said only notifying residents who live within 100 metres of a proposed development is not good enough.
The councillor said, to his knowledge, only one letter was sent out regarding this particular rezoning application.
“If we think that an impacted community is within 100 metres, we are going to continue to run amok as it relates to some of these processes,” said Norton.
“We can afford to send off more communication, regardless of Canada Post’s increase in postage, to get that in people’s mailboxes so that they don’t have to self-organize.”
The proposal is expected to come back for the third and final reading on Feb. 10.
