Saint John's new building incentives improve uptown appeal

Saint John's new program of incentives to encourage residential development in the city centre is getting praise from some people who live and work uptown.

But the pilot program for developers is really just a starting point in the city's attempt to make the urban core more appealing to residents, according to a panel of citizens who spoke to Information Morning Saint John on Thursday.

"With the incentive package you can certainly build houses, but you need to ensure you really represent the quality of life that exists there to make it a home," said Anne McShane, who lives in the north end and owns The Feel Good Store on Germain Street.

"You really need to stress the liveable parts of it. Maybe people remember the uptown from two decades ago, but a lot has changed in that time. So it's somehow showcasing that to people that it's really quite a vibrant place to meet."

On Monday, Saint John council agreed to the roll out of a new program that will provide financial help for upgrades, such as redeveloping upper floors, infilling empty lots and improving building facades.

It is expected to launch in the uptown in 2016, and then roll out to other parts of the city.

"We want to have a suite of options that allow developers to look at vacant land as opportunities, vacant upper floors as opportunities and homeowners of vacant buildings to have that opportunity to reinvest in those spaces because they are part of the fabric of our community," said Jody Kliffer, a city planner and uptown dweller.

Lowering the vacancy rate would help make the uptown a more dynamic place to live, he said.

"You want to leave your front door and be able to go places, see things and do things and I think Saint John has a good package of those amenities," Kliffer said.

Peter Buckland, who owns a gallery on Duke Street, says he made the decision to live uptown for the convenience of walking to work, while also being near local shops and restaurants.

He says filling empty spaces is an important part of the long-term plan to halt urban sprawl and get people living uptown again.

"It's not just moving businesses into the bottom floor, it's having people living in upper floors," he said.

"These people are going to feed our businesses … If the people come, everything else will follow."

But if the city wants to create more densely populated neighbourhoods, it also has to support them, said McShane.

Connecting the neighbourhoods through more pedestrian-friendly routes, such as Harbour Passage, could be one approach, she said.

"If you're trying to create successful dynamic cities, we need to dynamically respond to some of these needs," she said.

"And these are growing pains. We learn as we go and we're trying to respond to things, and I'm encouraged by that."