Quote:
Originally Posted by Steeple Shanks
Hello, I have been reading your thread with interest and thought I would join in. My daily walk takes me past the Victoria Street site. I first noticed the crane during the winter months, well before the old building was ever taken down. Having said that I also noticed two days ago that there is now a large back hoe at the site and they have placed in markers.
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Welcome!
Good to hear there is some movement there now.
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Downtown to lose 41 parking spaces
Published Wednesday June 16th, 2010
Meters | Portion of Queen Street to have two-way traffic
A1
By HEATHER MCLAUGHLIN
[email protected]
Business owners are distraught over the city's plan to eliminate 41 parking spaces in the downtown east end to stream more traffic through the area and to reconfigure traffic patterns surrounding its $78-million convention centre, government office building and parking garage.
Eight parking spots at the lower end of Regent Street will be removed prior to the July 5 closure of the Princess Margaret Bridge.
Twenty-seven spaces on Queen Street will be eliminated as part of turning that street between Regent and St. John streets into two-way driving. Six spots in front of the Centennial Building will also be gone.
"At $5 a day in a meter, which is very conservative, we're talking $61,000 in parking revenue," Downtown Fredericton Inc. general manager Bruce McCormack said.
"The bottom line is that our retail businesses that are on the street really depend on those (41) meters."
The downtown business group is 100 per cent behind the east-end convention centre and hotel development, but McCormack said there has to be a balance.
"Downtowns are very fragile. You look at other parts of Atlantic Canada, because the parking has been removed off the main street ... people just won't walk to go to the post office or walk that far to get a haircut. They want that convenience parking," McCormack said.
"It's very emotional for some of our retailers because they see those meters as revenue to them. Studies have shown that one parking meter in downtown Fredericton is worth $350 per day (to a merchant)."
Forty-one meters can be worth as much as $5 million in lost revenue over the course of a year, he said.
Development committee chairman Coun. Stephen Chase suggested at Tuesday's meeting that the city should experiment with leaving parking on Regent Street, for instance, in place during the daytime, but banning parking between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Spring Garden Road in Halifax, for instance, is an example of that practice where shoppers can park during the daytime, but have to move their vehicles during the exodus out of Halifax's downtown during the supper hour and back again during the morning rush hour.
"We don't have a rush hour in this city. We have a rush minute," McCormack said.
"When Queen Street changes from one way to two way and three lane to four lanes, our retailers are saying 'can't we slow the process down and try it for awhile?' "
The city's east-end parking garage is going to be a public parking garage, even though it will sell monthly passes to government workers, for instance,
Deputy mayor Dan Keenan suggested the city look at reserving the ground floor of the garage for short-term, two-hour limits, making it convenient for people to park and walk to nearby shops and restaurants.
Keenan said business owners have worked hard to build up the downtown and keep it vibrant.
"They're the experts in the downtown. We want to take their input into account," Keenan said.
Coun. Jordan Graham, who said he supports on-street parking, is concerned.
He said since some of the parking on Regent Street has been removed, speeds on the roadway have increased.
Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside said he once pictured Queen Street as a kind of pedestrian-friendly area with parking meters removed from the street and the sidewalk extended out toward its driving lanes with seating and flower planters.
"There's nothing attractive about cars parked on Queen Street," Woodside said. "Before I die, I'd really like somebody to look at it."
But the mayor's vision makes downtown business owners blanche and get white-knuckled and Woodside concedes that the concept would have to be embraced by business owners.
"I don't think that we're at that point yet, but the vision really was to extend the sidewalk out to where the parking is with benches and trees and planters and make it truly a people place, but if there's any indication that it will impact business, that's not going to happen because business comes first," the mayor said.
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City to funnel gas tax cash into Grant * Harvey project
Published Wednesday June 16th, 2010
A5
By The Daily Gleaner
The city will be reallocating a portion of the $9.6 million it has received in federal gasoline tax revenues from 2006-10 to the Grant * Harvey Centre's geothermal energy installation.
Under the federal government program, the city had approved $1.3 million for the construction of the Cliffe Street off-ramps. To the end of December, $565,472 had been spent, leaving a balance of $707,528.
The city's public works and engineering department said it can't complete work it had planned until it completes additional property transactions.
"As a result, the unspent cost for the Cliffe Street project can be re-allocated to another existing capital investment plan project, being the Grant * Harvey Centre," states a report approved by city council.
Funding for the completion of the Cliffe Street-Westmorland Street Bridge project will be taken from a future public works capital budget.
The provincial government, which administers the gasoline tax funding program on behalf of Ottawa, has approved the transfer. Construction will start on the multimillion-dollar Grant * Harvey Centre this summer.
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Fredericton apartment vacancy rate down slightly
Published Wednesday June 16th, 2010
D1
By SHANNON DEMERCHANT
[email protected]
According to figures released by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), the overall vacancy rate for apartment units in New Brunswick's urban centres remains unchanged at 4.7 per cent.
In Moncton and Saint John the vacancy rate was up by 0.4 and 0.6 percentage points.
Fredericton posted the only vacancy rate decline, with a 1.8 percentage point decrease.
Claude Gautreau, of the CMHC Market Analysis Centre, said that the changes are minor. "Every market is unique and there is no generalized reason as to why," he said. "These are really minor fluctuations and they are quite common. We haven't seen much of a trend within the past couple years, everything has remained pretty much the same."
Gautreau attributes Fredericton's vacancy decrease to migration. "Fredericton is the province capital so there is a lot of people who move there and when you get people moving to a new area, they generally begin their residence in apartments."
CMHC's Rental Market Survey is conducted twice a year in April and October.
The research provides statistics for vacancy, availability and rent information in provincial centres with a population of 10,000 or more across Canada.
Gautreau expects October's statistics to remain within the same range.
"There's always going be fluctuation and that has a lot to do with supply and demand and business development. The statistics seem to stay within the same range every year and we don't really expect to see that change in the fall reports."
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