A sign energy boom has arrivedPublished Saturday August 2nd, 2008
Planning City experiencing steady increase in number of rezoning applications: official
B4Dave MacLean
Telegraph-Journal
SAINT JOHN - A recent increase in the number of rezoning requests coming before common council is just another sign that the energy boom has arrived, says the city's commissioner of planning and development.
Council and the planning advisory committee have seen a steady increase in rezoning applications for residential and commercial development in recent weeks and months, said Ken Forrest. He said the winter and spring are generally the busiest seasons to deal with rezoning applications as developers and contractors prepare for the summer construction season.
"People are usually preparing for the development season before that, so we tend to find that the more significant stuff - if the developers want to do something in the 2008 construction season - they're more likely to be thinking about it in the winter leading into spring," said Forrest. "The summer tends to get more bogged down with minor variance stuff - people doing small projects and realizing they've got an issue.
"There are generally two motivators when it comes to rezoning applications in terms of the timing: there's people thinking about it in the winter and spring to get ready for construction season, and there's the development boom. Overall, we're seeing a significant increase in substantive rezoning applications, so this summer is busier than usual. But it has nothing to do with the cyclical part of the trend. It's just a general increase in volume. Our volumes are up big-time on everything. That's the leading edge of the boom, I would suspect. Otherwise, we would normally expect most of the substantial rezonings to be more in the winter and spring."
Forrest says the planning advisory committee has been swamped with requests in recent weeks. And he doesn't have any reason to believe it will slow down any time soon.
"
We're moving from an average of about six cases a week in the past to lately where we're running about 12 to 15 cases a week."All of the current planning stuff is up significantly over background averages and
most of that seems to be related to the leading edge of the boom. The applications are much more substantive, as well - a lot of them are major developments."
Among the items common council will deliberate at its meeting next Tuesday (rescheduled because of the New Brunswick Day holiday):
* 2 First St. - The rezoning of a parcel of land (about 1.6 acres) from special Zone 11 to B2 general business in order to allow for offices to be established.
* 40 Mountain View Dr. - The rezoning of a parcel of land (about 5.6 hectares) from one- andtwo-family suburban residential to one- and two-family residential and high-rise multiple residential to allow for the construction of a residential development with a mix of two-family homes
and five-storey condominium apartment buildings.
* 20 Alma St. - Amending the Section 39 conditions imposed previously to allow for the
construction of a non-profit housing development.
* Blue Rock Court - Amending the Section 39 conditions on a large parcel of land to allow
for the development of an apartment complex consisting of three buildings with a total of 55 units, instead of one building with 61 units as previously approved.
from
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/372719
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