Pulp mill's parking lot plan hits 2nd delay in front of Saint John council

An Irving Pulp and Paper plan to turn part of Wolastoq Park into a parking lot hit its second delay with Saint John council.

At the continuation of a public hearing Monday night, councillors said they want to see the company and city staff come to an agreement on community benefit.

The company is asking the city for approval to convert 30 per cent of the park into a roughly 500-space parking lot to accommodate the workers needed for a $1.1-billion upgrade project.

After a lengthy discussion, councillors voted to send the plan back to the city manager for further discussion, ultimately delaying a final decision. 

The nearby Simms Corner intersection and its well known issues played centre stage in the discussions, along with the loss of park space for the community. 

Many councillors expressed concerns about quality of life impacts.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to a loss of park, a reduction of quality of life for those who live and use that area," Coun. Gary Sullivan said.

"If you're losing a big hunk of park and increasing traffic and making their life tougher, what's the community benefit?"

The public hearing on the proposal began two weeks ago at the Feb. 10 council meeting, but the issue didn't get resolved before the 11 p.m. scheduled end. The majority of speakers in that meeting spoke against the proposal, with five left to speak in favour of it.

While a date for the item's return to council has not been determined, the city's general counsel, Melanie Tompkins, said council must vote on the bylaw change within six months or the application process would need to restart.

One of the remaining speakers — Andy Carson, J.D. Irving's director of government relations — said projected traffic increases resulting from the Irving NextGen project won't hit the same peaks as traffic resulting from other projects. 

He pointed to the Harbour Bridge construction project slated to be near completion in 2027. 

Carson said traffic related to its construction will ease this year and while the Irving project will add traffic back into Simms Corner, it would never reach the peaks of traffic related to bridge construction.

"Which isn't to say that there won't be an impact. That's still hundreds of cars. We appreciate that and we're going to work hard to try to minimize that impact as part of what we do," Carson said.

Tim O'Reilly, the city's director of public works, said Irving doesn't take several factors into account, such as train growth, port expansion and other industrial growth. 

Irving wants the parking lot for workers who will be needed for the mill's $1.1-billion plan to replace its recovery boiler and increase pulp output. While J.D. Irving Ltd. owns the land, the company's proposal requires a zoning change.

The proposal was announced in October and has drawn criticism from city residents and staff, but support from trade and union groups, the city's Chamber of Commerce, mill employees and others. 

Irving Pulp and Paper mill vice-president Mark Mosher and others say the upgrade would bring a significant economic boost to the city and province through job and tax revenue growth. 

Opposed residents and city staff members say creating a parking lot would effectively make the area unusable as a park.

Carson also addressed concerns about green space loss and said the company is open to discussion with city staff about how it can support other park lands on the city's west side. 

Mayor Donna Reardon said the delay in making a decision was about doing the right thing.

"I mean, 25 years ago when they purchased that, we didn't talk about mental health and we didn't talk about green spaces and we didn't talk about neighbourhoods," Reardon said.

"But we've evolved since those 25 years and now those things are important to us as communities."

J.D. Irving Ltd. bought the land overlooking Reversing Falls in 1998. 

The company announced layoffs early Monday to roughly half of its paper plant workforce. The layoffs were not mentioned in the parking lot public hearing.

Mosher did not speak during the hearing and declined to speak with reporters after the council decision.