Saint John neighbours gear up to fight Millidgeville Apartment development
When she saw the letter from the city of Saint John on Friday evening, Lena Biryukova was appalled.
Like others in her Millidgeville neighbourhood, she had been wondering for some time about what's happening with a vacant and crumbling 1960's era church property on nearby Millidge Avenue.
The proposal, by a Guelph, Ontario-based numbered company, would see two, four-storey apartment buildings placed on the 1.9 acre lot at the intersection of Millidge and Daniel Avenue, less than a hundred metres from her child's school.
"There is no space... on that piece of land for apartment buildings with 80 apartments," said Biryukova, who signed a joint letter of opposition with two of her Bellmanor Drive neighbours.
"It will be like traffic jam road, we don't want our kids to walk through there."
Several other neighbours also fired off letters of opposition to the project. They raise concerns about potential noise and traffic, the building's height and architectural design, parking pressures, and discord with the quiet, suburban nature of the area.
City planning staff are recommending the development be approved, noting that, while the makeup of the community is mainly low to medium density residential, the Municipal Plan does allow for new housing development of higher density in such areas.
Their report to the PAC says further that the property is located in a "Suburban Intensification" area.
"Intensification Areas are intended to develop with the highest concentration of land uses appropriate for their neighbourhoods, and they are the primary places for growth to proceed in a community," states the document.
The developer could not be reached for comment Monday.
The project is one of two, high density apartment building developments to be considered Tuesday by the city's Planning Advisory Committee.
The other project, by Tower Contracting, would see a seven storey building go up in a residential area on the site of the Gothic Arches, the now almost completely demolished former United Church building on Wentworth Street on the city's Central Peninsula.
The developer is seeking approval for a municipal height map variance to allow placement of a building that will be about 25 metres tall.
That's about 11 metres above what the height map for the Wentworth and Princess Street neighbourhood allows.
