Pleasantville plan should accommodate ordinary folk: residents

Residents of a neighbourhood in the east end of St. John's are hoping decommissioned military land will be developed to include affordable housing.

Much of the land once used in the Pleasantville military base is now in the hands of the Canada Lands Company, a Crown corporation.

Jim Jesseau, who rents a unit that formerly housed military personnel, said the neighbourhood is rife with rumours about what will happen to former base buildings.

"I heard that's what they're planning on doing — tearing them down in a year and half, all of them," Jesseau said.

"What happens after that, I have no idea."

Pleasantville was largely a farming area before the U.S. military built a base during the Second World War. The Canadian government took over much of the base, with the Canadian Forces maintaining a presence in Pleasantville to this day.

The view from Jesseau's home offers a stunning panorama of Quidi Vidi Lake. He figures that view may play in role in whatever housing is built.

"All the property around here is prime land," he said.

"I'm thinking the people with the bucks are the people with the houses, I suppose. That's what's going to happen."

Sheila Abbott,an area resident whotakes regular walks around Pleasantville, also hopes that new properties will not be overpriced.

The homes should be "for people who are able to afford it, not really the upscale people— people like us, you know, mediocre people," she said with a chuckle.

The Canada Lands Company is hiring a local consultant to hold public meetings about the redevelopment of Pleasantville.

Vice-president Gordon McIvor says the corporation will build whatever the community decides, and that can include affordable, high-quality developments.

"The idea is to take a whole bunch of different ideas and weave them together into something that people are going to be able to be proud of and happy with, and ultimately entirely buy into," he told CBC News.

McIvor said it could be a year and half before Pleasantville is ready to be redeveloped.