Neighbourhood plan for Saint John core tackles noise, heritage rules, Coast Guard site

A new neighbourhood plan for Saint John's south end, uptown, and Waterloo Village will touch on issues such as noise, the Coast Guard site, and heritage bylaws.

This week's update on the Central Peninsula Neighbourhood Plan has been months in the making.

A special nine-member action committee, called Neighbourhood Action Team, pieced together feedback from public events and online engagements to glean what steps can be taken to improve the city core.

Now it's ready to present its findings.

City planner Jeff Cyr is is leadng the effort on what will eventually become an action plan for the area.

He said it includes finding common ground on an escalating feud between new uptown residents and the bars and live-music venues that already exist.

- Saint John music fans call for noise bylaw overhaul

"So looking at changes we can make to the zoning bylaw, the heritage bylaw, potentially a small assistance program for soundproofing of businesses," Cyr told Information Morning Saint John on Tuesday.

"Eventually, over time, dealing with and addressing the issue in a manner that will be balanced, that will support businesses while creating reasonable expectations and a reasonable system for noise."

Heritage program updates

A new urban design program is also proposed for the central peninsula, which should outline how the city hopes to develop properties, modernize buildings and make improvements affordable for people who own heritage properties.

"Looking at what we have for heritage, and how we evolve it in a respectful way for the city," said Kay Gillis, a lifelong resident of the south end and chair of the Neighbourhood Action Team.

"So a lot of different pieces will come out of it … how do we want the city to look like in 10, 15, 20 years … and how do we respect what we have in terms of heritage in our city."

The group also heard from people who want better access to the empty Coast Guard site, which has seen proposed developments announced and then shelved over the years.

"In the past we've looked for one large developer to come, and often the proposals may have been too large scale to be feasible in this market place, so it's about developing an incremental strategy, let's break the site into pieces and develop it in phases," Cyr said.

"Perhaps we'd look at developing the Water Street portion first … put down some grass sod on the back half to get public access, build some interest and demand for the area in preparation for the development of the back half later."

Gillis said that after months spent gathering input from people, she's excited to share the results.

The committee is made up of two councillors, a representative of Uptown Saint John and seven citizen members.

Open house

"I really enjoyed it," Gillis said. "It brought me face to face with a lot of ideas and different concepts, and just learning what goes into city planning has been eye-opening

"You can actually see the words people shared written on a sticky note, and you can see their words reflected in these reports. You see the comments that were sent through the website, and you can see it reflected in different drafts.

"it's been exciting, and I'm looking forward to helping push it through in the future."

The update on the Central Peninsula Neighbourhood Plan is planned for Thursday at the Market Square Atrium from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The open house-style session will share progress on the plan and get feedback on the direction the committee is taking.

Cyr said from there, the group will finalize plans and prepare recommendations for council to adopt in 2018.