Foes of larger Saint John industrial park tired of being 'talked at' by city

Nipun Tiwari · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 03, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Residents of a agrarian assemblage connected the southwestern borderline of Saint John are pushing backmost adjacent much present against the city's projected enlargement of the Spruce Lake Industrial Park.

In October, aft concerns raised by Lorneville residents, the City of Saint John deed the brakes connected plans to grow the concern park. The metropolis decided alternatively to create a task unit to promote further treatment of the arguable project.

The task force, called the Lorneville Community Liaison Committee, according to residents, is chaired by David Dobbelsteyn, the city's maturation and assemblage readying director, and Adam Wilkins, a Lorneville resident, according to gathering minutes. The committee has held seven meetings, open lone to radical who unrecorded in Lorneville and to metropolis staff.

Initially optimistic, residents are present saying the meetings weren't the discussions they were hoping for. 

"It was astir apt aft the archetypal mates meetings we started getting the consciousness that our concerns weren't going to beryllium listened to," said Christopher Watson.

"We were conscionable being talked at. The city said, 'This is what's happening.'"

The metropolis declined requests for an interview, saying unit are moving connected a study connected the results of the task force, oregon liaison committee. The province's determination improvement corp besides declined to comment. 

WATCH | People surviving successful Lorneville telephone for 'meaningful dialogue' connected Spruce Lake plan:

The resident-led absorption to the expansion began arsenic a petition past July, but since the meetings began past November, the absorption efforts person grown to see signs connected neighbourhood windows, nonmigratory vehicles, highways and immoderate uptown buildings.

They each nonstop the aforesaid message: Save Lorneville.

The past gathering of the liaison committee was successful February. Meeting agendas provided by unit to residents included items specified arsenic the following:

• Explaining presumption (heavy industry/ zoning/ municipal program designation)
• Costs and timelines
• Buffers 
• Environmental and assemblage impacts 
• Protecting good h2o and land
• Public benefits 

According to the agendas, unit besides aimed to reply questions specified as "Why Lorneville and not elsewhere?" for the concern parkland enlargement and had clip for assemblage feelings and opinions. Residents, however, accidental they don't consciousness heard.

"They were mostly selling the task and trying to easiness the concerns by saying 'heavy manufacture is not what dense manufacture utilized to be,'" said lifelong nonmigratory Dawn Alexander. 

"That 'everything volition beryllium OK' and presenting antithetic things connected postulation and the task and what the manufacture could be, but they wouldn't springiness america immoderate answers." 

An evolving resistance 

In July, the metropolis announced it is looking to grow the Spruce Lake Industrial Park due to the fact that the metropolis doesn't person the abstraction for large caller businesses to acceptable up their operations.

Currently, the task focuses connected clearing and grubbing the onshore and turning the tract into "development acceptable pads." It is chartless what benignant of manufacture would spell determination and when. 

To marque mode for the expansion, the metropolis needs to alteration the municipal designation of 420 hectares to "employment country and dense industry." This would let it to beryllium developed for concern use.

The program sparked contiguous pushback from residents, who launched a petition that garnered implicit 700 signatures successful a week and presently sits astatine implicit 4,300. The astir caller disposable estimation of Lorneville's colonisation is astir 800.

Residents besides sent hundreds of letters to some the provincial authorities and metropolis staff, and councillors and spoke successful beforehand of the city's readying committee. 

Residents accidental protestation efforts started escalating astir halfway done the task unit meetings erstwhile they felt they weren't making headway.  

"We started to get retired determination and get our connection around," Alexander said.

"We've been penning letters, reaching retired to metropolis councillors, the mayor, we've reached retired provincially and written letters to the situation curate and past the curate of earthy resources, the premier." 

Watson is acrophobic astir aboriginal generations successful the country and semipermanent sustainability successful the community. 

:And those haven't been addressed oregon adjacent acknowledged by anybody successful this process," helium said.

"So cipher astatine each should beryllium amazed erstwhile we loudly and aggressively combat backmost connected this."

Wetland nonaccomplishment and buffer questioned

Much of the absorption comes from residents acrophobic astir the nonaccomplishment of wetlands, which marque up conscionable implicit fractional of the improvement area, according to the project's biology interaction assessment.

Wetlands are fundamentally earthy sponges, said Roxanne MacKinnon, the caput of biology radical ACAP Saint John.

"So they're precise bully for h2o retention and soaking up water, which makes them highly biodiverse and important habitats for galore species."

MacKinnon said wetlands are indispensable for flood prevention, peculiarly arsenic clime alteration makes dense rainfalls much frequent, and the h2o needing determination to "naturally sit.'"

She said wetlands volition apt inactive beryllium successful the country aft improvement due to the fact that of their abundance.

"But erstwhile you are infilling some, that impacts wetlands further downstream," MacKinnon said. "What that interaction mightiness beryllium is chartless astatine this infinitesimal due to the fact that we don't truly cognize what manufacture is going to beryllium there."

Residents are besides acrophobic astir the buffer astir the concern area.

The metropolis did summation the buffer to 150 metres from 30, but residents said that's inactive excessively tiny and pointed to the city's municipal plan, which says dense concern sites should person a buffer of 1.5 kilometres. 

Staff reports accidental that the enlargement volition align with the plan. The country "is envisioned to see a scope of low, medium, and dense concern uses," the reports said, and aboriginal developments would beryllium required to conscionable zoning conditions.

The connection volition beryllium backmost successful beforehand of assembly this month.