Saint John resident doubts fairness of city's approach to Irving plan for parking lot
Public should be able to weigh in on potentially substantial changes to pulp mill proposal, resident says
After an industry proposal to turn part of Saint John's Wolastoq Park into a parking lot hit two vote delays at Saint John city council, a resident is questioning the fairness of the process.
Irving Pulp and Paper is asking the city for a rezoning to convert 30 per cent of the west side park into about 500-parking spaces for the workers needed for a $1.1-billion upgrade project.
Both residents and city staff members have pushed back against the proposal because concerns about traffic and a diminished quality of life.
On Feb. 24, councillors delayed a decision on the plan, saying they want to see city staff and the company, part of J.D. Irving Ltd., come to an agreement on the "community benefit" before a vote.
- Saint John pulp mill and city staff in conflict over 550-spot parking lot on parkland
- Pulp mill parking lot proposal referred to Saint John advisory committee following opposition
Resident Sara Stashick sent a letter to council which was included in Monday night's agenda, saying that adding a community-benefit offering to the proposal would change Irving's application, and if it is modified substantially the public should get to weigh in again.
Stashick said adding currently unknown "community benefits" to the agreement should make it a new application, and the process — or "some version of it" — be restarted.
"Even if it means that people who were in opposition to the initial proposal want to speak again and say that they're opposed to whatever the new proposal is or maybe a bunch of us would be supportive of it," she said.
"We have no idea what JDI will offer. How can we possibly state for the record whether we're for or against a thing that we don't have any information on?"
The public hearing on the proposal was spread over two meetings beginning on Feb. 10 featuring speakers predominantly opposing the plan. The hearing was cut short because the issue didn't get resolved before the meeting's scheduled end.
It continued with supporters of the project, including Irving representatives, speaking on Feb. 24, when the second delay occurred.
Stashick said the suspension of the meeting for lack of time offered company representatives an unfair advantage.
"They had the opportunity to customize their remaining presentation based on the opposition that was expressed in the first meeting," she said.
"Which is a smart strategy but maybe not the most fair given that the opposition wouldn't have the opportunity to refute their claims."
Reducing public hearing speaker times
Coun. Barry Ogden also has concerns about fairness of the public hearing process and wants to give more people the chance to speak. He would do this by reducing the time allowed for individual speakers.
Currently, speakers are allowed 10 minutes, but Ogden submitted a proposal Monday night that would lower the limit to five minutes.
Ogden said community members approached him after recent, lengthy meetings, including the Wolastoq Park session, and told him they weren't given the chance to speak.
"Some people told me they were put off a bit that the room was so full, and there were people speaking for 10 minutes, saying the same thing that the previous person said," he said. "Some people didn't get a chance to speak at all.
"Then of course we had another session. But then some had to work that night. I never thought about it from that point of view."
Ogden said reducing speaking time could allow for a wider range of perspectives.
While Ogden was spurred by the recent delays with Irving's Wolastoq Park proposal, he noted there have been multiple zoning applications that attracted a high resident response in recent months, resulting in meetings lasting several hours.
This year, three out of five council meetings so far have run between 3½ to five hours because of public hearings. Only the Irving parking lot proposal has resulted in a meeting suspension and a delay in the council vote.
Stashick was cool to Ogden's idea. Ten minutes is a short time to speak as it is, she said and a hearing suspension, as happened with Wolastoq Park, a rare occurrence.
"I don't think that limiting speech, especially public input, is necessarily an appropriate solution for that," she said.
Stashick's letter was received and filed with the city.
Ogden's submission asks staff for a recommendation about a procedural bylaw change.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
