An application by Irving Pulp & Paper to build a 500-space parking lot in part of Saint John’s Wolastoq Park should be denied, according to city staff.
The rezoning application and municipal plan amendment came before city council for a public hearing on Monday night.
Company officials said the extra parking would support a planned $1.1-billion expansion of its pulp mill located across the street.
“Today, even before we start this project, I am extremely short for parking,” Mark Mosher, vice-president of Irving Pulp & Paper, told councillors.
Mosher said that hundreds of on-site parking spaces will be displaced as a result of the expansion project due to the construction of a new recovery boiler in that area.
Even with new spaces being created elsewhere on the mill property, it is expected that more than 500 new parking spaces will be required, he added, hence the Wolastoq Park application.
About 70 per cent of usable land at the park would remain available for public use, Mosher maintained.
The company said it considered an on-site parking garage and off-site parking with busing, but determined they were not viable options.
Irving Pulp & Paper would spend about $2 million for upgrades at the park, officials said, including a pedestrian overpass over Bridge Road to connect the site with Mill Road.
An aerial view of proposed parking changes at Irving Pulp & Paper in Saint John and the adjacent Wolastoq Park. Image: Irving Pulp & Paper
City, several residents want application denied
However, several residents who spoke at the hearing raised concerns ranging from a loss of park space to increased traffic through an already busy Simms Corner.
Sara Stashick, a business owner in the city, urged council to deny Irving Pulp & Paper’s application.
“When I need to hire staff, I don’t come knocking at your door. It’s up to me and my business to make my recruitment offering attractive and competitive. Not you, not the city,” said Stashick.
City staff have also recommended that council deny the application, saying it goes against the city’s municipal plan.
Pankaj Nalavde, the city’s community planning director, said the park currently acts as a buffer and transition use between heavy industrial and the residential community to the south.
“The scale and magnitude of this development, in some ways, can be perceived as an expansion of the industrial footprint onto the adjacent community, and this is not consistent with land use designation,” said Nalavade.
In fact, if the application were to go ahead, the site would “no longer function as a park, nor as a buffer,” according to a staff presentation.
Staff also noted that the traffic impact study completed as part of the application does not paint a complete picture of cumulative impacts from rail land industrial growth.
Park not meant to be there forever: company
Wolastoq Park is on the former site of the Centracare mental health facility, which was closed in 1998 after 145 years of operation.
It was later purchased by J.D. Irving, Limited, which owns Irving Pulp & Paper, and rehabilitated into park space in 2004.
Mosher said the site was never meant for permanent park use when they bought it from the province. He said the company agreed to convert it into green space until a “suitable economic condition” came forward.
“If a $1.1-billion investment in this city is not a suitable economic condition, I don’t know what is,” he said.
The public hearing had to be paused at 11 p.m. due to time restrictions. It will resume on Feb. 24, when five remaining people will get the opportunity to address council.
