The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[MonctonRad]

What really ticks the complainants off in this case is all the secrecy about the site selection process. They have gone to government a number of times to seek additional information about how and why Royal Oaks was chosen as the site of the school, and all they have gotten back is heavily redacted documents with large amounts of text blocked out. This seems to be a massive state secret.

If the government were only more forthcoming about the selection process, this lawsuit could have been avoided.

Right now, it only seems that the government has something to hide........

[MonctonRad]

Is there too much parking?
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Times & Transcript
By: Brent Mazerolle

City, business officials try to reach delicate balance between need for parking, other uses for land

A new brochure from Downtown Moncton Centre-Ville Inc. helpfully emphasizes how many interesting places exist downtown.

But that might not be the first thing that strikes you about the hybrid aerial photograph and illustration of the downtown core. Instead, it might just be how much of downtown is taken up with sprawling parking lots.

That's both a bad thing and a good thing, of course. Arguably, windswept asphalt plains are the abso lute opposite of ambience, especially when Moncton's downtown is compared to the dense and vibrant downtowns of Halifax, Fredericton and even Saint John. That's clearly a bad thing for downtown.

Read more:
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=9172

Personal note:

Is there too much parking?

Short answer - YES!!!!

The trouble is that the vast majority of the wasteland of surface parking in the core is off limits to casual parkers, patrolled by towing companies and booters. There are many people who do not know where it is safe to park and where it is not. My son got towed the other weekend and needed $180 to get his car out of hock. The uncertainty of parking has made the core an uninviting place to casually spend time in the evening. How can you enjoy yourself if you don't know if your car will be gone when you get back? At the same time, the ambience of the core, while very nice in places, is contaminated by acres of useless surface parking. The core would be much more inviting if it were denser and more attractive.

Solution:
- ban booting
- fence in all private parking lots
- encourage densification by transforming the acres of surface parking in the downtown into new retail, commercial and residential development.
- replace the surface parking with a series of strategically placed downtown parking garages.

The current bandaid of new on street metered parking on Main St is not the answer!!!!.

[OUIR@random]

Castle Manor has been sold! A Moncton area developer has bought the building, but he's not saying what he will be doing with it according to the CBC. However, there is real estate investor from Toronto who is interested in renovating the building into a boutique hotel. The price tag for the project would be 5 million dollars, ouch! Nonetheless, how great is that project? I love the idea, hope it happens! We have to protect the few historical buildings we have left in Moncton!!! I just hope it won't be demolished for the land and replaced with a strip mall, a 3 story vinyl clad apartment building, a Sobeys or Shoppers Drug Mart. I think Moncton has the largest ratio of Sobeys-Shoppers Drug Mart-Tim Hortons in Canada, talk about Monopoly.

[MonctonRad]

The T&T seems to be taking a very hard editorial stance against the "Stop the Royal Hoax" group and their legal action against the government.

I think the paper is missing the point. I believe most people accept the fact that a new school is necessary. The real issue is "why is the new school being built at city limits, so far from where the majority of students live"? Also, why is there so much secrecy around the site selection process?

If the new MHS had been built somewhere in the Lewisville/Harrisville area, I don't think the opposition would have been nearly so great. Many of the MHS students come from this area and also from Dieppe, which is immediately adjacent. A school in this location also would have been much more conveniently situated to the major highways for the regional bussed students.

Why is it so important that MHS be located in an isolated location at city limits? What is the political reason for this? Inquiring minds need to know!

[MonctonRad]

Brace yourselves everyone!!!!

They are busy painting the lines for the parking spots on Main St tonight.

I predict traffic chaos tomorrow. I drove through there tonight at 11:30PM, and I can already see problems. A taxi stopped to let patrons off in the traffic lane in front of me and I was forced to wait for it to move for several minutes. This was on a section of the street where I formerly could have been able to pass it.

Paralysis will ensue......

[Mattyyy]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Brace yourselves everyone!!!!

They are busy painting the lines for the parking spots on Main St tonight.

I predict traffic chaos tomorrow. I drove through there tonight at 11:30PM, and I can already see problems. A taxi stopped to let patrons off in the traffic lane in front of me and I was forced to wait for it to move for several minutes. This was on a section of the street where I formerly could have been able to pass it.

Paralysis will ensue......

I'm not saying I agree with the parking solution, however instead of predicting doomsday and catching it from every negative angle possible - at least give it a chance and see how it works out. It is after all only a trial, and a short term fix. The city isn't going to build parking garages at $35,000 per space, so unless you can come forth with better solutions, for the short term try to embrace it and see how it works out.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Mattyyy

I'm not saying I agree with the parking solution, however instead of predicting doomsday and catching it from every negative angle possible - at least give it a chance and see how it works out. It is after all only a trial, and a short term fix. The city isn't going to build parking garages at $35,000 per space, so unless you can come forth with better solutions, for the short term try to embrace it and see how it works out.

Oh, they can try it, and maybe I'll be wrong and have to eat humble pie, but I still think that this is nothing but a cheap bandaid solution, and if the city is really interested in growing the downtown then they will have to make the hard decisions and do it right.

I can hardly wait for the next time a tractor trailer tries to make it down Main St and realizes too late that they can't make it under the subway. Can you imagine trying to back an 18 wheeler up on a Main St narrowed by parked cars next to the curb? Not a pretty sight!!!

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

I can hardly wait for the next time a tractor trailer tries to make it down Main St and realizes too late that they can't make it under the subway. Can you imagine trying to back an 18 wheeler up on a Main St narrowed by parked cars next to the curb? Not a pretty sight!!!

They should put one of those (ugly) I-beam height-regulators just after the intersection with Assumption, before the pedway. Maybe put up a sign on it that reads "You must be shorter than THIS to ride The Main Street." or "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here".

[MonctonRad]

from CBC

Moncton council accepts high school deal

Provincial government will cover $12M of costs to build at Royal Oaks
CBC News Posted: Jun 26, 2012 6:02 AM AT Last Updated: Jun 26, 2012 7:23 AM AT

The majority of Moncton council voted Monday to accept a provincial deal to help cover some of the city's costs in building a new Moncton High School at the Royal Oaks subdivision.

The city has opposed the provincial government’s plan to relocate the school to the city’s outskirts in part because of the $30 million it would cost the city for new roads, sewer and water lines.

But the provincial government has now offered to pay part of the cost, said Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc.

“If we refuse it, then we will borrow the millions of dollars, up to $12.8 million to cover the cost that they have offered to pay and then we would ask the taxpayers of Moncton alone and their children to bear the cost of that,” he said.

Citizens have requested the new school be located closer to the city’s downtown and the former council had called for a public forum with the provincial government on the matter.

Coun. Dawn Arnold urged council to continue to fight the provincial government’s plan to move the school out to Royal Oaks.

Councillor feels bullied

"I don't think that we should be bullied and I feel like that is what is happening right now,” she said.

Fellow Coun. Charles Leger was also opposed.

“We can't seem to stop the government from doing what it wants to do and it has the legal right to do that, but we don't have to agree to it,” he said.

Still, Coun. Daniel Bourgeois is pleased the provincial government has agreed to pay slightly more than a third of the costs the city will face.

“Council was consulted this time, not only consulted but we were able to sit at the table to negotiate with the province,” he said.

'I think we need to stop whining.'

Coun. Paulette Thériault said it's time for the city to move on.

“I think we need to stop whining,” she said.

Thériault says the city is growing and the provincial government has agreed to save the old Moncton High by turning it into condos and offices.

Last week, four concerned citizens filed papers with the Court of Queen's Bench, asking for a judicial review of the decision to replace the 77-year-old school with a new building in the Royal Oaks subdivision.

The citizens contend the provincial government is in violation of the Community Planning Act by putting the school outside the serviceable boundaries of the city and are asking the court to quash the decision.

They also want all of the information the government used to make the decision to put the school in Royal Oaks.

The new school is scheduled to open in 2014, a year later than scheduled due to construction delays.

The estimated 1,300 students and staff will remain at the old school until the new building is ready, officials have said.

The new school was announced in February, 2011. The provincial government says it scouted more than 20 potential sites before choosing Royal Oaks in July, 2011.

[Taeolas]

That's disappointing; and I'm not even in Moncton.

What's especially sad is that people are making it out as "Either build a new school out in the Boonies, or renovate the existing school." binary option, instead of considering that most would accept a "build a new school somewhere where there are actually people now." solution. All in all, this MHS issue is disappointing, to say the least.

[kwajo]

It seems especially odd that the province wants the Royal Oaks location so badly that they are even willing to pay an additional $12 million for the extension of services. If their budget was that large in the first place, why didn't they look more extensively at centrally-located sites?

[JasonL-Moncton]

this is horrible...

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Taeolas

What's especially sad is that people are making it out as "Either build a new school out in the Boonies, or renovate the existing school." binary option, instead of considering that most would accept a "build a new school somewhere where there are actually people now." solution. All in all, this MHS issue is disappointing, to say the least.

Are there any other prime possible locations in Moncton to build a high school? Anywhere, say, within the boundaries of Wheeler Boulevard?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by GregHickman

Are there any other prime possible locations in Moncton to build a high school? Anywhere, say, within the boundaries of Wheeler Boulevard?

Within Wheeler, not really. The best site inside Wheeler would likely be where the old army base was, adjacent to Vaughan Harvey Blvd, but that is less than half a mile from Harrison Trimble High School.

There are oodles of possible sites south of the TCH. My own personal favourite would be somewhere in the east end near Harrisville Blvd. This would be convenient for the east end of Moncton and for Dieppe, which is probably where at least half of the student body would originate from.

[mylesmalley]

When you consider the amount of money the province is willing to pony up for infrastructure improvements could instead be repurposed for buying land, there's a ton of options throughout the city.

Personally I wouldn't mind seeing it around the NW corner of Morton and McLaughlin. There's also tons of land off Mapleton, or the extension of Frampton through the vision lands. It could even go on the far side of Elmwood around where the new Sobeys is. There was also the suggestion of putting it at the SW corner of Vaughan Harvey and Main.

As the minister has said, they considered 20 or so properties as potential sites. The problem is that they're refusing to say why they were all discarded in favour of Royal Oaks. If all they needed was a flat, serviceable lot, they could have acquired a hundred acres in one of the industrial parks!

[BlackYear]

It's here folks!!! Parking on Main St has begun.

Hell downtown is now here! Can't wait to witness the first parallel parking attempt. Or better yet, the first driver's side door to get ripped off its hinges. Or, how the hell emergency vehicles are going to get through!

I'm going to bring my lawn chair and a bag of popcorn on the next sunny day and watch the fiasco. I see a lot of YouTube moments in my future!

[MonctonRad]

I don't imagine that the Codiac Transit bus drivers appreciate the new paradigm.

We used to worry about the old Gunningsville Bridge eating the sideview mirrors off our cars. I think that this concern will now be transferred to drivers on Main St.

[ballain]

Originally Posted by Mattyyy

I'm not saying I agree with the parking solution, however instead of predicting doomsday and catching it from every negative angle possible - at least give it a chance and see how it works out. It is after all only a trial, and a short term fix. The city isn't going to build parking garages at $35,000 per space, so unless you can come forth with better solutions, for the short term try to embrace it and see how it works out.

I think the city should build a Nice parking garage, dosen't matter how much it cost, would make alot more sense then having all the city buses ride all day, they are almost always empty, I cant even imagine how much it cost

[monctonian]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Within Wheeler, not really. The best site inside Wheeler would likely be where the old army base was, adjacent to Vaughan Harvey Blvd, but that is less than half a mile from Harrison Trimble High School.

There are oodles of possible sites south of the TCH. My own personal favourite would be somewhere in the east end near Harrisville Blvd. This would be convenient for the east end of Moncton and for Dieppe, which is probably where at least half of the student body would originate from.

There are hundreds of acres of undeveloped land between Elmwood Drive, the TCH, the Shediac Road and Mill Road. And much closer in than Harrisville Boulevard.

However that area is electoral district 21 - Moncton East. The Royal Oaks location is in electoral district 24 - Moncton Crescent.

Comprestand?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by monctonian

However that area is electoral district 21 - Moncton East. The Royal Oaks location is in electoral district 24 - Moncton Crescent.

Comprestand?

Oui, je comprend tres bien!!

Royal Hoax is also at the city limits, within spitting distance of a certain Kent South riding occupied by a certain provincial minister quite germaine to the overall site selection process....

The process is similar to the one used to locate the new regional provincial jail in Shediac, at least a 25 minute shuttle ride for inmates from the new provincial lawcourts. Meanwhile there was oodles of available land in several of the regional industrial parks that could have accomodated the facility that were much closer.....