[Helladog]

Big subdivision, east-side style
Development: Builder plans on constructing 200 homes in Saint John

John Mazerolle
Telegraph-Journal
Published Saturday February 16th, 2008
Appeared on page B3

SAINT JOHN - A planned east side subdivision could be the site of up to 200 new homes in the next five years.

Developer John Hart plans to build one home a week in the area between Grandview Avenue, Boyaner Crescent and Wyatt Crescent.

The mostly single-family homes could start going up as early as next month, if the city's planning advisory committee and common council consent to the development.

"We need new construction," said realtor Harold Coughlan, who does the developing and marketing for John Hart Ltd. "There's a need for it and there's been a demand for it." Coughlan said he already has people on a waiting list, even though they haven't put a sign up yet.

Jim Baird, the city's commissioner of planning, said a project of this scope tends to hit the city once ever two or three years. He said the most recent comparable development is the expansion of Forest Hills by developer Bob Darling.

The land in the area had been owned by the federal government and was eventually used for what was then known as the 'east Saint John land assembly,' Baird said. It led to the development of Heather Way, Boyaner Crescent, and Wyatt Crescent.

Then, in the 1980s, Scott Bros. Ltd. bought and developed the lands roughly between Eagle Boulevard and Simonds High School.

Hart plans to continue to expand the neighbourhood.

Baird said it will be a boost to the area and shouldn't garner much resistance, beyond the typical concerns about any development, such as traffic and drainage.

"This is almost exclusively a residential area and they're proposing to do exclusively residential," he said, adding that it was very similar to the development Scott Bros. kicked off 20 years ago.

Like Baird, Coughlan said he's not expecting any big problems during the approval process.

If the subdivision gets the go-ahead, the first home could have someone living in it by May, Coughlan said. Then one house will be built each week.

Hart is "certainly looking at this as a great opportunity to help facilitate new construction in the city of Saint John," Coughlan said.

The advisory committee meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. in the council chamber. Common council's public hearing is March 3 at 7 p.m., also in the council chamber.