As Saint John council prepares to set its priorities, its members have been cautioned that development and population growth don’t always go hand-in-hand.
At a special meeting on priority setting, mayor Don Darling and councillors heard about challenges facing the city — including urban sprawl.
Back in 1951, Saint John was just 36 kilometres in size with a population of just over 73,000 people. By 2011, that land size had multipled by almost 10 and our population had actually dwindled. Sprawl also means we have a large amount of infrastructure per capita than in comparable cities and towns.
Transportation and environment commissioner Michael Hugenholtz told council that the “vast size of Saint John presents unique challenges” for the city.
Mayor Don Darling has told council that they have to change:
“We’ve got this massive city and we’ve got to find ways to do things a bit differently,” says Darling. “I don’t think we can do business as usual.”
He says we cannot sprawl.
“When we’re out and we have many kilometres with few houses it’s just so much more expensive for us,” says Darling. “I fully support the principles of Plan SJ, focusing density on the core of the city and using infrastructure that we already have.”
