Saint John adds a green focus to industrial park plan

Nipun Tiwari · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 30, 2025 10:42 AM EDT | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago

Saint John has revised its arguable program to grow the Spruce Lake Industrial Park, shifting the absorption to attracting businesses from the greenish and cleanable sectors and not dense industry.

Lorneville residents opposed the enlargement of the adjacent parkland retired of fears for the environment and assemblage life, but the latest draft plan would prohibit immoderate businesses from an "emitting" industry, specified arsenic 1 with smokestacks.

The program primitively focused connected making hundreds of hectares "pad ready" and redesignating the country for imaginable dense concern use, but did not specify sectors. 

The changes follow feedback a task unit gathered from residents of the assemblage connected the southwestern borderline of Saint John, which the metropolis heard "loud and clear," said David Dobbelsteyn, the city's manager of maturation and assemblage services.

"We're precise assured … we really person a connection present that benignant of meets the needs the communities are looking for successful presumption of feeling much unafraid and protecting the environment," Dobbelsteyn said. 

"But besides ensuring that we make venues for much jobs and much maturation for the portion that's successful hopeless request of it."

At a media lawsuit this week, 2 improvement groups spoke successful support of caller proposal, saying the metropolis is seeing global investment involvement from greenish and cleanable businesses but needs readily disposable onshore to accommodate them quickly. 

"Clean and greenish energy, greenish manufacturing, information centres, warehouses — there's each kinds of involvement from antithetic industries," Ian MacKinnon, manager of Saint John Industrial Parks, said this week astatine a media lawsuit astir Spruce Lake.

MacKinnon and Envision Saint John's CEO Andrew Beckett some said the request for the onshore for these industries is captious due to the fact that galore funny businesses won't hold if they person to spell done a analyzable rezoning process.

"You would beryllium adding months, if not years, to the process," Beckett said. "Businesses volition accidental we tin spell elsewhere. They privation certainty successful presumption of wherever they're going to be."

In October, the metropolis deed the breaks connected the archetypal program for the Spruce Lake enlargement due to the fact that of the concerns raised by residents.

Although the city created a task unit for treatment with residents, the pushback escalated as the meetings continued implicit the winter. 

One past gathering was held April 23, and the updated connection was posted connected the city's readying website Shape Your City on Friday.

As portion of its statement for the expansion, the metropolis says companies typically necessitate 40 hectares per tract for development, but spot that size is not disposable or  decently zoned elsewhere successful the city. 

The draught program for Spruce Lake would increase a buffer astir the park to 250 metres from 150 and astir doubles the minimum setbacks for "volatile" concern uses to 500 metres from 300 metres. 

Uses specified arsenic asphalt, factual oregon cement plants, fertilizer manufacturers, lumber, insubstantial and pulp mills, and akin developments would beryllium prohibited. 

The projected program besides says the metropolis wouldn't allow improvement connected provincially important wetlands and would lone let improvement connected different wetlands if determination was a wide concern lawsuit for it. 

A nationalist proceeding and a assembly ballot connected the draught volition beryllium held connected May 12. 

Lorneville nonmigratory Adam Wilkins, a person successful the absorption to the enlargement and seat of the task force, said the projected changes don't reassure him oregon different assemblage members.

"We're not against economical improvement oregon jobs successful the city," helium said.

"But astatine what cost? Is it the hazard to wellness and information for the radical that unrecorded present and unrecorded nearby, the hazard to situation and clime alteration resilience?"

Residents privation much information

Even requiring the new businesses to be clean oregon greenish doesn't code a main interest of the assemblage members, helium said. They inactive don't cognize precisely what volition spell connected the land.

"How bash you enactment restrictions connected thing that doesn't really beryllium yet?" helium said.

"If determination was a concern attached to what was coming, you could cognize what the pros and cons are, what the risks are …but determination is thing there." 

Beckett and MacKinnon said they could not uncover what businesses person expressed involvement successful Saint John.  

Dobbelsteyn said companies often similar not to beryllium identified truthful their competitors aren't alerted and perchance get to an accidental up of them.

"So there's truly delicate negotiations with tract selectors erstwhile they're identifying wherever could developments go," helium said.