What’s Going On With Moncton’s Contentious Eastgate Development?
MONCTON – Moncton city planners oppose Bill Hennessey’s proposed Eastgate subdivision in the north end of Moncton. But, if the development gets council approval, Hennessey says he wants to sit down with them.
Since speaking out against the project, planners have reached out to Hennessey and the understanding is they will map out the necessary steps to proceed if the development passes through council.
“It’s a matter of looking at the next steps in terms of what we need as the applicant,” said Hennessey.
“I’m looking forward to sitting down with the plans out and getting the markers out and figuring out what we’re looking at doing, making sure we’ve addressed all of their perspectives, whether it be trail systems or places for turning plows around.”
Hennessey told Huddle that bringing more single-family homes and townhouses to Moncton is necessary for the city’s continued growth in the face of ballooning housing demand.
“We have a housing crisis. We’ve got a beautiful story in terms of population growth, we’ve got a beautiful story in that we’ve got lots of jobs. So, in essence, that was the thought the process that went into Eastgate,” Hennessey said.
“It’s an infill site in an area that’s a logical growth area for the city. There’s a lot of residential developers looking for land that have been struggling to find it.”
Mixed feelings
Hennessey petitioned Moncton’s city council as a representative of ELCA Developments Inc. The project has only passed its first reading and needs to make it through second and third before it’s fully approved.
A majority of council, including Councillors Daniel Bourgeois, Bryan Butler, Shawn Crossman, Paul Richard, Dave Steeves, and Paulette Theriault voted in favor of Eastgate. But many also voted against it.
Eastgate only cleared its first-reading hurdle by a narrow (6-5) margin. It got the thumbs-down from the city’s Planning Advisory Committee and was criticized by residents during public hearings in October.
Coun. Susan Edgett, who voted against the development, stressed during a discussion at the Oct. 17 regular meeting the need to follow the city’s existing urban plans and the guidance of the city’s urban planning department.
“This just seems it’s not in place the way it should be…We should already have a charged development area in place, so that we’re going forward, we know, exactly, all the infrastructure that needs to be put in place, and we know when and how we’re going to get that return. That’s normally there before it all starts,” Edgett said.
“I’m going to go with what our staff are telling me today. We have a very smart plan in place to complete the infill in our urban boundary, we do have the stock we need for the next five years and I cannot vote for this, this evening.”
City spokesperson Isabelle LeBlanc said the second and third readings for the development will likely happen at council’s Nov. 21 regular meeting.
Hennessey stressed that he wants Eastgate to be evaluated on the entirety of its merits and not just on whether or not it checks off all the necessary technical requirements.
At its core, Eastgate will help a supply-and-demand issue for housing, he said. He added that he believes councilors looking at its merits are focused on doing what’s best for the growing city.
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Eastgate would include 956 residential units, a private school, a daycare, and a market – all across from the nearby park. If it’s approved it will be built on 145 acres of land and would require 10 new public streets and two entrances from Elmwood.
Hennessey said there is existing infrastructure already there in the case of 142 lots that are part of his proposed development.
“There’s nothing the city needs to do there for the first couple of years anyway,” he added.
Anomalous
For Eastgate to happen, the city would have to extend water and sewer services, since the plot of land Hennessey wants to develop near the Irishtown Nature Park is technically outside its serviceable urban boundary.
Hennessey called the approximately 60-hectare lot he wants to develop “a bit of an anomaly.” He notes that, despite sitting outside municipal boundaries, land both north and south of it is considered inside those boundaries.
“Eastgate is 5.1 kilometers from the downtown … and the casino is 10.2 kilometers from there. I very much thought it was a no-brainer when I started down this road because we recognize we need inventory,” said Hennessey.
“I said, ‘if it was half a kilometer closer to the city, you would be excited about it and embracing it, and if it was half a kilometer further away from the city you would be excited and embracing it.’”
“It’s not an issue of servicing it, because infrastructure is there and the services run right by the property.”
Hennessey, hearing other developers fretting over the city running out of available residential land to develop, came up with the idea for Eastgate with the need for eventual expansion in mind.
Controversy
To get the blessing of city planners, Hennessey said there needs to be proof there’s no more land to develop within municipal boundaries. While there still is available, good residential land available, its owners can’t be forced to sell it if they don’t want to.
In August, Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold spoke out against Eastgate recommending two studies on urban growth and the Elmwood Drive transportation corridor.
“We put everything in place to enhance efficient, cost-effective, and transit-supportive growth and development within our growth boundaries of our city,” Arnold told council at its Aug.16 regular meeting.
“This has been our modus operandi for a long time. This would fly in the face of that, in my opinion.”
City Planner Josh Adams told council in August that the subdivision goes against Moncton’s municipal plan and that Moncton doesn’t need to expand its urban boundaries to accommodate the development.
Adams told council that the city has room to develop 32,000 units with existing zoning in place. That’s between 25 and 50 years’ worth of land.
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Moncton is seeing record population growth, Hennessey noted. While the city is keeping up with the growing demand for rental property – a share of the market he pegged at 31 percent of it – Hennessey said more needs to be done to keep up with demand for single-family homes.
Elmwood Drive, the major traffic corridor leading north to the proposed land, is seeing a surge of activity with ongoing development of Moncton’s Granite Center – for which Hennessey is a real estate broker, signing up tenants, with Colliers International New Brunswick.
Also going on near Elmwood is Crombie REIT’s expansion of its 95,010 square feet of holdings – that include an existing Sobeys, Lawtons Drugs, ANBL and Dollarama – with two new commercial buildings in the area between Elmwood and Fils de Jesus Avenue.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].