The Official Saint John, NB Project Thread

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by cdnguys

Next PAC meeting will consider a proposal for a restaurant with drive thru on corner of University and Millidge.

Site plan included shows it will be a McDonald’s.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Site plan included shows it will be a McDonald’s.

[adamuptownsj]

Originally Posted by sailor734

Is that really upsetting or surprising? There was one in the Irving 200m to the north for years.

[DyAm00394]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Site plan included shows it will be a McDonald’s.

[RaginRonic]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

For the record, the original Millidgeville McDonald's at the Millidge Avenue Irving was open from Wed., Feb. 26, 2003 to Wed., April 30, 2014, a total of 11 years, 2 months, and 4 days.

[sailor734]

With only one entrance/exit located close to the intersection traffic will be a real issue. As it is it's often tough to get out of Jean Coutu with traffic turning right off Millidge onto University appearing at some speed and cars lined up turning into or coming out of Timmies/Wendy's. With the Tim Hortons/Wendy's located directly opposite you basically have an unregulated 4 way intersection only a 150 feet or so from the intersection of Millidge Ave and University.

The lineup for Tims is often backed up out onto the street at busy times.
In addition the bus stop between this entrance and Millidge Ave blocks your view when pulling out and the recent bike lanes with bollards further restrict traffic flow

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

Is that really upsetting or surprising? There was one in the Irving 200m to the north for years.

No, just mildly disappointing we aren't getting something better/more interesting.

[adamuptownsj]

The bike lanes on University should be removed and replaced with a multi-use path on the south side of the road. Needs four lanes. Utterly unused and extremely unpopular.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

The bike lanes on University should be removed and replaced with a multi-use path on the south side of the road. Needs four lanes. Utterly unused and extremely unpopular.

I drive University Ave fairly often and I drive Millidge Ave/Somerset to town daily. In the years since the bike lanes were established I can count on the fingers of one hand how many bikes I see the the run of a year. It's like city planners have drunk the koolaid of the cult of cycling ideology and no longer acknowledge reality. Are there specific areas of SJ that might see bike lanes used? Sure. Would they be used everywhere? No.
The other question that has never been answered is what level of daily bike traffic should be required to justify the installation of a bike lane? What level of use should be required to maintain an existing bike lane rather than remove it?

EV's will have 100% replaced ICE vehicles before we ever become a second Amsterdam.

[darkharbour]

Originally Posted by sailor734

I drive University Ave fairly often and I drive Millidge Ave/Somerset to town daily. In the years since the bike lanes were established I can count on the fingers of one hand how many bikes I see the the run of a year. It's like city planners have drunk the koolaid of the cult of cycling ideology and no longer acknowledge reality. Are there specific areas of SJ that might see bike lanes used? Sure. Would they be used everywhere? No.
The other question that has never been answered is what level of daily bike traffic should be required to justify the installation of a bike lane? What level of use should be required to maintain an existing bike lane rather than remove it?

EV's will have 100% replaced ICE vehicles before we ever become a second Amsterdam.

I disagree with this, you're putting the onus on the wrong side of the argument. The bike lanes shouldn't have a minimum traffic level to be maintained, it should be that the vehicular traffic has to justify removing them, and on University Avenue it definitely does not. The road is perfectly fine with the current number of lanes, and now that the bike lane is there it is cheaper to maintain and therefore better off left in place as the city continues to build up a network of active transportation infrastructure to further connect it.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by darkharbour

I disagree with this, you're putting the onus on the wrong side of the argument. The bike lanes shouldn't have a minimum traffic level to be maintained, it should be that the vehicular traffic has to justify removing them, and on University Avenue it definitely does not. The road is perfectly fine with the current number of lanes, and now that the bike lane is there it is cheaper to maintain and therefore better off left in place as the city continues to build up a network of active transportation infrastructure to further connect it.

After following some dear old soul in a Camry the entire length of University Ave at 35-40 kph, I disagree.

[DyAm00394]

Plaza REIT is planning expansion projects for multiple of their NB properties including Lansdowne Plaza and 35 University Avenue.

We recently learned that the 35 University Avenue project will be a McDonald's, but I'm curious about the Lansdowne Plaza project. It's mentioned to be a 2,000 square foot "phase 2" project. Any ideas? I'm thinking a QSR since it will be a small size.

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Plaza REIT is planning expansion projects for multiple of their NB properties including Lansdowne Plaza and 35 University Avenue.

We recently learned that the 35 University Avenue project will be a McDonald's, but I'm curious about the Lansdowne Plaza project. It's mentioned to be a 2,000 square foot "phase 2" project. Any ideas? I'm thinking a QSR since it will be a small size.

I wonder what's not in the Northend/Millidgeville area? A&W maybe? They seem to be growing the number of their locations lately.

Lansdowne would seem to have a ton of room for expansion.....or is the old Sears location separate?

Speaking of Lansdowne, I wonder if we will ever see a new Sobeys?
They tried to build a new store about 30 years ago out by the corner of Lansdowne and Visart but couldn't get planning approval as I recall.
That was about the time the Millidgeville Superstore was under construction.
They did an overhaul and reorientation of the existing Sobeys instead at that time but it's looking pretty tired these days.

[adamuptownsj]

Originally Posted by DyAm00394

Plaza REIT is planning expansion projects for multiple of their NB properties including Lansdowne Plaza and 35 University Avenue.

We recently learned that the 35 University Avenue project will be a McDonald's, but I'm curious about the Lansdowne Plaza project. It's mentioned to be a 2,000 square foot "phase 2" project. Any ideas? I'm thinking a QSR since it will be a small size.

This seems to be the most viable place for a 2000sf QSR at Lansdowne. In addition to the main plaza and the building to its northeast, the weed store, Tim's, and Subway are also part of the Plaza holdings. As Subway is on the same PID as the Sears site, I presume Plaza owns that too. RBC owns its building.

[cdnguys]

[JakeNB]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

So is our 54 unit at 208 Waterloo. Just some delays, same with Barrack Green.

Have been driving down Waterloo regularly and thought of this comment. So is this project still alive?

[sailor734]

Originally Posted by JakeNB

Have been driving down Waterloo regularly and thought of this comment. So is this project still alive?

I'd forgotten about that one. Interesting looking from what I recall. Hope it goes forward.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by adamuptownsj

The bike lanes on University should be removed and replaced with a multi-use path on the south side of the road. Needs four lanes. Utterly unused and extremely unpopular.

Full agree with you there, but who is going to pay for bike path?

You're the last person I'd have expected to support spending that kind of dough on a multi use path, but nice to hear.

I think the city should invest way more in multi use pathways and bike paths, and agree bike lanes are not preferable, especially not here in Saint John a city with narrower streets.

Saint John should be aiming to get bike rental stations across the Harbour Passage system. Starting with directly in front of the cruise ship terminals.

We don't need a gargantuan system like Montreal or Toronto... a dozen bike rental stations could be used quite strategically. Very few people actually use bicycles for transportation in Saint John, and fear of their bikes being stolen is a part of that... along with feeling unsafe on the road. Bike lanes suck compared to bike paths.

Bike rental stations and better bike paths would do wonders for cycling in Saint John. A good way to pay for those two things would be comprehensive tax reform and regional amalgamation.

KV people pour tonnes of money into Rockwood Park cycling, and they've even received quite a lot of financing from the provincial government... but very few tax dollars generated in KV go towards building bike paths in Saint John. I think it's safe to say tax dollars generated in Saint John have gone towards building bike paths in KV, due to the really twisted way industrial tax revenue is raised and then redistributed by the province to other municipalities.

SJ has an infrastructure deficit of over half a billion dollars. Even if tax reform was a best case scenario and happened tomorrow, there wouldn't be enough money in the budget for The City of Saint John to build a better, city wide multi use pathway system by themselves. Would be a different story if we amalgamated or saw a fundamental change in tax revenue sharing within the region, but it remains to be seen what the Liberals have in mind.

While it's nice Quispamsis, Rothesay, Hampton, and Hanwell jumped on the Team Holt bandwagon, city voters in Saint John, Fredericton, and Moncton are the ones they really need suck up to and get things done. Even if amalgamation is too controversial to touch for now, building better bike paths in our cities, or even bringing back the harbour ferry to Saint John could go a long way in making city voters feel like industrial tax revenue isn't being siphoned off so much by the suburbs and rural communities. Same goes for other big infrastructure projects here in Saint John and other cities...

I'm going to remain hopeful that Holt's team cares a lot more about spending smartly to make our cities more livable, desirable places to live... the stuff Higgs was pretty diametrically opposed to spending money on

Anyways, here's hoping we get better bike path.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Speaking of multi use paths...



Good to see.

[bridgeoftea]

What seems like is almost an annual tradition with the Harbour Bridge, we now see work happening almost 24x7. Activity on the bridge once it hits late October, we start seeing the weekend jobs and overnight jobs.

Is there an actual reason / weather wise they wait so long before throwing everything at the bridge? Feels like if they'd just work it 24x7 from April onwards, they might be finished the summer work by June/July.

I could be wrong though, more than likely very wrong. Just a funny observation.