Rothesay resident says development with 1,277 housing units too much for 'one corner'
Town council to vote on proposal that would significantly increase the population over a 20-year period
Nick Landry and his family live on a quiet, tree-lined street in Rothesay, a town of 12,000 outside Saint John.
They moved here eight years ago from a small Alberta community and were looking for something similar here.
"It seemed really safe, very family oriented, very age friendly and we just felt like it was a great place for us to plant roots for our family here in this community," Landry said.
At the same time, Landry likes to be close to amenities, and there are nearby commercial areas with big box stores, coffee shops and restaurants, and you can hear the traffic from the highway even though you can't see it through the trees.
Residents like him know they live in a quiet area close to more bustling ones, and they understand the development that occurs in commercial areas.
But a proposal for a large-scale residential and retail development on neighbouring land may be too much for them.
Landmark Living recently submitted a proposal for a large-scale residential and retail development on Millennium Drive that includes nearly 1,300 new housing units that would be constructed over a 20-year period on a 22.8-acre site.
Built in five phases, the development would ultimately include 16 four-storey apartment buildings, 34 single-family homes and 144 townhouses.
Landry says it's too much growth, too fast, for such a small community.
"That amount would represent about a 25 per cent increase in the town's population, all concentrated on that one corner," he said.
"We believe that the size of the development, which would be unprecedented for the town, doesn't really fit into the context of the community. And there would be broader impacts that would extend beyond [our] neighbourhood, in terms of traffic congestion and a potential for another 2,000 cars."
Landry is also concerned with an issue in his own backyard. They've had problems with flooding because there's a wetland in the wooded area behind their house. Now they're worried about houses that could be built there as part of the proposed development.
"It's to a point in the spring that our backyard doesn't really get to be used until midsummer, until it dries up," Landry said.
"I'm sure that's the case for many on the street as well … we feel like any development that's directly abutting those lots would inevitably adversely affect those lots, be that from potential flooding or trees that wouldn't survive the development."
Landry's house is also on a well, as are others on his street, so he wonders how the development would affect the water table.
Deputy Mayor Matt Alexander says the town will address the concerns about water and traffic if the development goes ahead.
Overall, he said, the new neighbourhood will add more vibrancy and diversity to the town.
"I think it'll be a very mixed type of community," Alexander said. "It'll be a community of all ages, so you'll have young people right to the elderly, just because of the many different options that they have available to them in that area."
Seven of the apartment buildings will have ground-floor commercial spaces that he said could house doctors offices, dentists, a small grocery store in there and coffee shops.
"It will be its own little hub, its own little neighbourhood," he said.
There have been previous proposals to develop this site.
Nearly 20 years ago, Walmart proposed building a store there, a plan that was rejected by council.
Then in 2015, another developer proposed a retail development for the site, but it didn't go ahead either.
David Bennett, who moved into the neighbourhood with his wife and daughters 12 years ago, remembers the debate over the proposed retail park.
"Last time we had lots of warning," he said. "There were lots of meetings, lots of discussions. And this time it's [moving] really fast … I just feel like it's just being rammed straight on through."
Alexander said the site was already zoned for this kind of development, so it didn't require a consultation process with multiple public meetings.
'There's space for everyone here'
Bennett and Landry are both in favour of development on the site.
"We need something there," Bennett said. "I mean, it's just a set of woods. It's just sitting there right now waiting to be developed."
Landry said it's important to do the right kind of development, one that respects the character of the community.
"A lot of people feel that Rothesay is a community worth living in because there's space for everyone here," Landry said. "There's lots of amenities for people here, and there's just room to breathe. We feel like that influx on that corner could change the dynamics of that potentially in a bad way."
The town council will vote on whether to approve the development agreement on Monday.
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