Officers' Square decision will take at least another month, city officials say

Fredericton city council is at least one month away from deciding the fate of Officers' Square.

At a Monday night city council meeting, councillors took concerns from the public and spent more than an hour challenging city staff on every detail of the proposed revitalization plan at Officers' Square. 

Now, they wait. 

• Officers' Square in Fredericton about to get $8.9M facelift 
• Officers' Square project on hold as Fredericton looks for way to save trees 
• Foes of Officers' Square upgrade ask city not to rush loss of history, trees

"I wouldn't suspect we would get anything back for at least quite a while," said Coun. Bruce Grandy, chair of the city's development committee. 

"I'm not talking weeks, I'm talking a month or two months before we see anything come back to us that would allow us to make a decision on those options."

The proposed $8.9 million project would see a new skating oval, a permanent stage and other upgrades added to the downtown park.

But the plan also means that 19 trees would be cut down in the area — at least five of those trees have already been cut down. This has created outrage among residents over the past several weeks. 

Protesters wrap Officer's Square trees in blankets

7 years ago

Duration 0:53

A development that will force 19 trees to be cut down at Officers' Square will continue as planned, the mayor of Fredericton says.

At the meeting, councillors tackled questions like, whether a main stage could be replaced with a portable one or if the skating rink could be adjusted to prevent the cutting of more trees. Councillors also looked at what needs to be done to fix a historic wall along the park.

If the project continues, Grandy said council still isn't sure it will be able to reduce the number of trees that would be cut down.

But he wants staff to get a second opinion from another arborist on how the city can protect the trees. The city councillor also wants archaeological advice about artifacts that could remain underfoot in the space.

Poor communication

Grandy also said the city needs to improve its communication on future projects and Monday night's discussion should've taken place earlier in the planning process. 

"I don't think we were as prepared as we should've been. Our communications — I'll be honest with you — out to the public on some of our projects is not the best, and we're trying to improve that," said Grandy. 

"We've tasked other directors to look at our communications strategy, how we can better communicate with the public, specifically when it comes to projects."

Now what?

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City staff will look at the questions raised from Monday night's council meeting and provide more information based on those questions.

This will give council the facts it needs to make a final decision on where to go with the project.  

"What I'm committing to is making sure we get our questions answered, making sure the facts come back, enough that council can decide what options they want to go with and don't want to go with and move on from there," Grandy said.