Overflow crowd pours out worries to Saint John council about Spruce Lake plan

Saint John council had to delay its vote on a controversial plan to expand the Spruce Lake Industrial Park after residents spoke for five hours against it Monday night, many expressing anger and some on the verge of tears.

Close to 100 people filled the council chamber and spilled into the lobby as residents of the rural Lorneville community in the southwestern part of the city got to address councillors for the first time since the proposed expansion was announced nearly a year ago.

Twenty-nine people spoke on the rezoning required for the project before the hearing was adjourned at 11 p.m. 

"Thankfully, community members stepped up, not just people from Lorneville and not just people from Saint John," said Adam Wilkins, one of the leaders of the residents' opposition.

The hearing will continue next Tuesday, when councillors will hear from more opponents and from supporters.

The city announced its plan to expand the industrial park last July and said the site's municipal designation would have to change to "employment and heavy industry" to allow development. 

After nearly a year of opposition from the community and meetings of a task force set up in response, the city updated the proposal to say the development area will primarily be used for "medium" and "light" industry, with a focus on green sectors.

Zoning provisions would ban emitters and several types of operations, including scrapyards and pulp mills. Other industrial uses that would fall under "heavy industry" would require a risk assessment.

These changes did not quell opposition, however, with residents saying heavy industrial operations would still be allowed and there were no hints as to what industry might go there and when. 

In the week before the hearing Monday, staff said, they received more than 200 letters, most against the project. One was from John Williamson, MP for Saint John-St. Croix, which includes the community. He urged councillors to vote down the proposal.  

Environmental impact a key worry

Residents spoke about the history of the community and the development it's already accepted since becoming part of Saint John. They had a variety of concerns about Spruce Lake plan, including wetland loss, long-term community impacts and the fear future councils might reduce protections. 

"What happens to the next council and the next council and the next council that degrades any type of protections that you put in and hollow any type of securities that you put in," said Ashley Anthony of the Climate Action SJ advocacy group.

Community member Leah Alexander and other speakers also rejected city staff allegations of NIMBYism, or not in my backyard.

"We're not complaining about shade from an apartment complex or increased noise from a new splash pad or fumes from a parking lot," Alexander said. 

"We are not fighting for our backyards. We are standing up for the hundreds of creatures and living things that call this ecosystem home."

Staff reports say pushback stems  from misinterpreting and misunderstanding the language in the city's municipal plan and zoning bylaw. Residents say heavy industry should be 1½ kilometres away from neighbourhoods, according to the  municipal plan, while staff say these buffer guidelines were created with larger operations in mind.  

But this is not explicitly stated in the municipal plan, said opponent Sherri Colwell-McCavour.

"If this policy and distance was not meant to include all potential heavy industry, then the onus for understanding is not on the reader of said document, but it's on the author of that document."

The meeting's temperature took a notable spike when Anthony urged the politicians to "lead with their hearts" and "not make narrow-minded decisions," saying the community is "screaming" for councillors to protect them.

"And you guys aren't doing your job," she said.

"We just need a couple of you to exercise that moral value and to stand with the people here who care about that environment. Just because you don't see it every day, and because it's out of sight and out of mind for you, doesn't mean that it's out of sight and out of mind for them."

Mayor Donna Reardon interrupted Anthony at the 10-minute limit placed on each speaker and said her statements were "quite the judgment" on council. Coun. Brent Harris said, without turning on his mic, that the comments weren't productive.

Anthony and Harris got into a brief testy, largely indiscernible exchange as people in the audience reacted angrily to the councillor. City hall security guards tried to intervene and Anthony ended her address. 

City highlights uncertain economic future

Representatives of the city and the business group, Saint John Industrial Parks, emphasized a need for the park expansion in their presentation of the plan to council. The need comes from what presenters described as an uncertain economic future for the province, including a low projected growth in GDP in the coming year and Saint John's position as the most tariff-exposed city in the country. 

Ian MacKinnon, who heads Saint John Industrial Parks, said that without the available land the city won't be able to accommodate new businesses.

MacKinnon said he couldn't name interested businesses because of non-disclosure agreements but two companies allowed him to disclose some information. MacKinnon said the city received two "letters of intent "in April: one to build a data centre and another for a "green manufacturing project."

He said these would both be $1 billion projects. The data centre would bring 150 jobs and the green manufacturing project would create 70. At the peak of construction, the two businesses would employ more than 700.

The two together would increase the city's property tax base by at least $170 million, he said.