Foes of larger Saint John industrial park tired of being 'talked at' by city
Residents of rural Lorneville say they feel ignored in fight against Spruce Lake project
Residents of a rural community on the southwestern edge of Saint John are pushing back even more now against the city's proposed expansion of the Spruce Lake Industrial Park.
In October, after concerns raised by Lorneville residents, the City of Saint John hit the brakes on plans to expand the industrial park. The city decided instead to create a task force to encourage further discussion of the controversial project.
The task force, called the Lorneville Community Liaison Committee, is chaired by David Dobbelsteyn, the city's growth and community planning director, and Adam Wilkins, a Lorneville resident, according to meeting minutes. The committee has held seven meetings, open only to people who live in Lorneville and to city staff.
Initially optimistic, residents are now saying the meetings weren't the discussions they were hoping for.
"It was probably after the first couple meetings we started getting the sense that our concerns weren't going to be listened to," said Christopher Watson.
"We were just being talked at. The city said, 'This is what's happening.'"
The city declined requests for an interview, saying staff are working on a report on the results of the task force, or liaison committee. The province's regional development corporation also declined to comment.
The resident-led resistance to the expansion began as a petition last July, but since the meetings began last November, the opposition efforts have grown to include signs on neighbourhood windows, resident vehicles, highways and some uptown buildings.
They all send the same message: Save Lorneville.
The last meeting of the liaison committee was in February. Meeting agendas provided by staff to residents included items such as the following:
- Explaining terms (heavy industry/ zoning/ municipal plan designation)
- Costs and timelines
- Buffers
- Environmental and community impacts
- Protecting well water and land
- Public benefits
According to the agendas, staff also aimed to answer questions such as "Why Lorneville and not elsewhere?" for the industrial park expansion and had time for community feelings and opinions. Residents, however, say they don't feel heard.
"They were mostly selling the project and trying to ease the concerns by saying 'heavy industry is not what heavy industry used to be,'" said lifelong resident Dawn Alexander.
"That 'everything will be OK' and presenting different things on traffic and the project and what the industry could be, but they wouldn't give us any answers."
An evolving resistance
In July, the city announced it is looking to expand the Spruce Lake Industrial Park because the city doesn't have the space for big new businesses to set up their operations.
Currently, the project focuses on clearing and grubbing the land and turning the site into "development ready pads." It is unknown what type of industry would go there and when.
To make way for the expansion, the city needs to change the municipal designation of 420 hectares to "employment area and heavy industry." This would allow it to be developed for industrial use.
The plan sparked immediate pushback from residents, who launched a petition that garnered over 700 signatures in a week and currently sits at over 4,300. The most recent available estimate of Lorneville's population is about 800.
Residents also sent hundreds of letters to both the provincial government and city staff, and councillors and spoke in front of the city's planning committee.
Residents say protest efforts started escalating roughly halfway through the task force meetings once they felt they weren't making headway.
"We started to get out there and get our message around," Alexander said.
"We've been writing letters, reaching out to city councillors, the mayor, we've reached out provincially and written letters to the environment minister and then the minister of natural resources, the premier."
Watson is concerned about future generations in the area and long-term sustainability in the community.
:And those haven't been addressed or even acknowledged by anybody in this process," he said.
"So nobody at all should be surprised when we loudly and aggressively fight back on this."
Wetland loss and buffer questioned
Much of the opposition comes from residents concerned about the loss of wetlands, which make up just over half of the development area, according to the project's environmental impact assessment.
Wetlands are essentially natural sponges, said Roxanne MacKinnon, the head of environmental group ACAP Saint John.
"So they're very good for water retention and soaking up water, which makes them extremely biodiverse and important habitats for many species."
MacKinnon said wetlands are essential for flood prevention, particularly as climate change makes heavy rainfalls more frequent, and the water needing somewhere to "naturally sit.'"
She said wetlands will likely still exist in the area after development because of their abundance.
"But when you are infilling some, that impacts wetlands further downstream," MacKinnon said. "What that impact might be is unknown at this moment because we don't really know what industry is going to be there."
Residents are also concerned about the buffer around the industrial area.
The city did increase the buffer to 150 metres from 30, but residents said that's still too small and pointed to the city's municipal plan, which says heavy industrial sites should have a buffer of 1.5 kilometres.
Staff reports say that the expansion will align with the plan. The area "is envisioned to include a range of low, medium, and heavy industrial uses," the reports said, and future developments would be required to meet zoning conditions.
The proposal will be back in front of council this month.
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