Quote:
Originally Posted by adamuptownsj
Don't think I'm a huge fan of the new Large-Scale Development Incentives Program. The area covered is... strange. From Tin Can Beach along Water to Main and Chesley. Very skinny. Omits a lot of the South End, but I'm sure they'd be amenable to extending the boundary for the right project.
Minimum build of $40M and 150 units @ 400 units/hectare or more is asking a lot. The first Fundy Quay building wouldn't qualify, and it's exactly the kind of waterfront development we want to see. Neither would the Wentworth!
What really bugs me is the elimination of all the other Urban Development Incentive programs: the infill, upper floors, and vacant building grants are no more. The feds and to a lesser extent the province keep harping about 'missing middle' and 'gentle density' so Saint John goes and starts a highrise-only initiative. Right when a lot of smaller scale development and upper floors projects are planned or underway in the core, too.
I kind of get the rationale for this new program, but I really doubt it's going to see much volume. Lafford's mystery project, second building at Fundy Quay, the highly-theoretical Landmark... I can't think of much else. |
What’s your issue with the area covered? Do we have a detailed map of the area covered yet? Quoting the city website that you’ve so kindly linked:
“The City of Saint John has introduced the Large-Scale Development Incentives Program, a new initiative designed to encourage high density residential growth in the uptown and inner harbour areas.”
Imo, they should make this program available for all developments within the historic core and core adjacent areas of the city.
Here’s the most densely populated 3km radius in the Saint John Region:
There’s a lot of room for high rise development within the core and core adjacent areas of Saint John. The circle above contains some of Saint John’s oldest neighbourhoods, along with some of the oldest housing stock in Canada left standing. There's so much room to squeeze in more density throughout, yet the city seems to remain focussed on Uptown and now the North End.
I think we could see a lot of volume, height, and density to come out of this incentive program. $40 million and 150+ units really isn’t that big of a deal, and there’s lots of places around the West Side, North End, South End, etc that would be great places to build high density housing with either ocean views or river views.
If this incentive program existed more than a decade ago, along with generous federal and provincial funding, perhaps the major condo development would have actually been built at Fort Dufferin (which remains zoned for residential high rise, btw)
I find it pretty incredible that 99 King is qualifying for all these new initiatives despite being one of the ugliest residential developments discussed on this website, which discusses property developments not just all over Canada, but all over the world. I’m fine with 99 King getting low interest loans, and even 2.2 million in funding to provide 32 affordable units… but if they’re going to see a major part of their provincial financing forgiven, then I think we better see a lot more than 32 affordable units at 99 King into the long term. Otherwise, Wilbur getting multi millions forgiven above the $2.2 million figure would be ridiculous, and would be money much better spent funding projects elsewhere.
Saint John is a city with amazing geography, bounded by both the Bay of Fundy, and Saint John River Valley. It seems the current council and city planners are very much focused on Uptown and the North End, which isn’t too criticizable. The Central Peninsula
is the most interesting part of the city, and does deserve the most attention. Moreover, the North End is getting much needed attention and support after decades of decline and utter destruction, I’m happy to see this slight shift of focus from Uptown towards the North End. I’d just like to see the city start coming up with these type of strategies for the West Side. Perhaps a new plan for the West Side is also soon to come?
I think many people would agree that the West Side has the best ocean views and ocean beaches within the City of Saint John. There’s tons of room for a similarly ambitious new plan for the West Side that prioritizes high rise developments and large scale developments like the new plan for the North End and this new, Large Scale Development Incentive Program.
I've said it many times, but one of the biggest thing this city and region needs to do is to attract more property developers from the rest of Canada, and the rest of the world, to come invest here in Saint John. If this city can actually attract property developers from elsewhere to invest and build here, we could eventually see a major shift. This initiative at least attempts to provide incentives to developers to make Saint John a more attractive place to build large scale projects. I think the city does need to help pull investors and developers into Saint John to build large scale projects, but doesn't need much help to market forces to build small and medium scale projects.
If Team Holt truly delivers on property tax reform, perhaps the City of Saint John will have even more tools in their toolkit to attract property developers to invest in major projects here in the Port City... such as tax holidays, temporary reduced tax rates, tiered property tax rates, etc.
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