The Official Moncton, NB Project Thread

[monctonian]

Originally Posted by NBNYer

So are you saying that it's a bad comparison to other cities, or does the data for other cities also include such a large rural area?

Aren't these low housing costs a reflection of poor demand? Moncton seems to be consistently at the bottom of these housing cost lists nation wide.

I know the Saint John Real Estate Board average sale price includes sales in at least three counties.

Nation wide the largest (and most variable) component in housing cost is the land itself. The cost (value) of a lot of land in Moncton or Dieppe or Riverview has always been on the lower end of Canadian municipalities.

Nation wide the next most variable costs would be local municipal fees, labour rates and perhaps also concrete.

The least variable cost would be in all the other components of housing such as wood products, roofing, siding, plumbing fixtures, electrical and so on.

In summary low Moncton housing cost can be attributed to low land cost and stiff competition in the building trades.

[CdnEh]

Originally Posted by monctonian

I know the Saint John Real Estate Board average sale price includes sales in at least three counties.

Which 3 counties would those be? I can see including Kings County, but it'd be a bit far fetched to include Charlotte County.

[Philbilly]

MONCTON, NB–The Magnetic Hill Zoo is going to help provide a home to displaced animals from the Calgary Zoo.

Severe flooding destroyed many of the enclosures in the South America Exhibit, and the General Manager for the Zoo in Moncton Bruce Dougan says they’re in the process of relocating some of the animals here.

“A pair of giant anteaters, they’re looking to be coming here. We’re trying to work with West Jet now, because they are based in Calgary in the hopes that they will give us a little break in transporting those animals here. We’re also looking at bringing in a pair of Hyacinth macaws, which are the largest parrots in the world.”

Anteaters would be a first for the Magnetic Hill Zoo. Dougan says they currently have macaws but not this breed of the bird.

He expects the animals to arrive within the next few weeks, and they will be in Moncton for the next three to five years, if not permanently.

[mylesmalley]

Neat!

They're really strange looking animals.



from Wikipedia

[MonctonRad]

from today's T&T
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=11469

City has stadium dilemma
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Times & Transcript
By: Brent Mazerolle

The City of Moncton has an interesting dilemma on its hands - which of the two largest sports movements in the world should it appease with the turf at the Stade 2010 Moncton Stadium?

The international soccer body FIFA, the world's largest sports organization, wants the stadium to have artificial turf to help host games during the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, but Athletics New Brunswick and Athletics Canada want the city and stadium owner Université de Moncton to maintain the natural grass field that meets the standards of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the second-largest sporting body in the world.

In open letters to the City of Moncton, Bill MacMackin, president of Athletics New Brunswick, and Rob Guy, CEO of Athletics Canada, have advised the city that the move to remove the grass would eliminate Moncton as an option to ever host international track and field events.

They say it would also make national events like the recent championships far less likely to come to the city.

So far, the city has made no decision on the matter, which would have to be made in conjunction with Université de Moncton through the committee that runs the stadium. Possibilities include converting the Université de Moncton stadium to an artificial turf surface either permanently or temporarily.

personal note - I have given this issue some thought over the last few months and I think it would be best if the Moncton Stadium at UdeM remained a natural turf field. I think this facility has a brighter future as a track and field stadium than as a football/soccer stadium. It is one of the best track and field facilities in the country, and is an attractive host facility for national and international events. As a football stadium however, it is pretty generic. Unless UdeM becomes serious about CIS football, or unless Moncton gets a CFL franchise (a very long term project), I think the status quo should remain.

I think that a temporary artificial turf field could be put down for the FIFA U18 tournament and for the FIFA Women's World Cup. This is probably what the city should consider......

[MonctonRad]

From today's T&T
http://22864.vws.magma.ca/index.php?&article_id=11466

Building permits in Moncton hit high
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Times & Transcript
By: Allison Toogood

May shows best year-to-date value in past 10 years; $115 million worth of new construction so far in 2013

May marked a successful month for various sectors' construction and development in Moncton as the year-to-date building permit values hit and exceeded $115 million - the best year-to-date in the past 10 years.

So far, 2013 has more than doubled last year's total new construction value of $55 million.

'Moncton's strong building permit numbers continue to show the health of our local economy,' Mayor George LeBlanc said.

The city issued 77 commercial and industrial permits since January with a development value over $56.3 million; a sharp increase over the $22 million issued at the end of May 2012.

The building inspection department issued 15 institutional and government permits totalling nearly $40 million to date compared to last year, when 13 permits were issued, hitting just over $2.2 million.

'Building activity to the end of May continues to outpace the previous years,' said Sherry Sparks, Moncton's director of building inspection. 'We are expecting the strong commercial and industrial activity to continue into the third quarter of 2013.' Residential construction continues at a steady pace in the city with nearly $30 million in development this year. Although the values show for a lower level of activity when compared to residential activity between 2010 and 2012, it's still within the 10-year average.

May also continued to be steady in the 'other' permit category of construction which includes signs, swimming pools, fences, sheds, garages and other structures. These values totalled nearly $500,000, which is up from the $419,000 reported in May of 2012.

The department's May 2013 highlights include:

Construction of new Kent Building Supplies, located at 45 Babineau Blvd., valued at $5 million.

Construction of new service and repair garage (Parts for Trucks), located at 387 Desbrisay Ave., valued at $2.5 million.

Construction of new retail and wholesale outlet, Atlantic Air Cooled Engines, located at 254 Horsman Rd., at just over $1.1 million.

Addition to existing senior's residence, located at 75 Briarlea Dr., valued at $650,000

[MonctonRad]

Link to the pdf of the July meeting of the Moncton PAC:

http://www.moncton.ca/Assets/Governm...uly+agenda.pdf

[monctonian]

Originally Posted by CdnEh

Which 3 counties would those be? I can see including Kings County, but it'd be a bit far fetched to include Charlotte County.

From the Saint John Real Estate Board's web site - "About Us" page - ( http://www.sjrealestateboard.ca/inde.../About-Us.html)

" The Saint John Real Estate Board covers the southern part of New Brunswick to the U.S. border in St. Stephen, and includes the counties of St. John, Kings, Charlotte and portions of Queens County. "

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by CdnEh

Which 3 counties would those be? I can see including Kings County, but it'd be a bit far fetched to include Charlotte County.

That's not so far fetched, for example half the workers at Point Lepreau come from the other two counties, and places like St. George are very much extended satellite communities of Saint John.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Link to the pdf of the July meeting of the Moncton PAC:

http://www.moncton.ca/Assets/Governm...uly+agenda.pdf

Nice to see the area around evergreen continuing to fill in. What's going on by Mapleton?

[MonctonRad]

I presume you're referring to the land on the southwest corner of the Mapleton/TCH intersection.

That land was acquired in a swap (by Co-op Atlantic I believe, but I could be wrong) and is slated for a commercial development called "Mapleton Crossing".

It caused quite an uproar a couple of years back because everyone though that the land was actually part of Mapleton Park, but in fact it was not and the city was perfectly justified in rezoning it for highway commercial use. The item before PAC concerns altering a watercourse to allow for development to proceed. I have no knowledge if (or when) any actual construction will occur on this site......

[josh_cat_eyes]

Interesting. I wonder what will be going in there? The whole subdivision looks to be pretty big too!

[Monctoncore]

Surfers to ride Moncton's tidal bore

Monday, July 22, 2013
Times & Transcript

Location: A2
Topics: Miscellaneous, Neutral


Some of the world's top surfers will be in Moncton today through Friday to surf the super tidal bores.

Antony Colas from France, JJ Wessels and Colin Whitbread, both from California, and Yassine Oulihal from Canada will be among the first to surf the Petitcodiac River.

They will be at the Bore Park Amphitheatre today at 2 p.m. The tidal bore is expected at the following times this week:

Tuesday, July 23: 10:52 a.m.
Wednesday, July 24: 11:45 a.m.
Thursday, July 25: 12:36 p.m.
Friday, July 26: 1:27 p.m.

These times can vary 15-20 minutes depending on natural factors.

[habs33]

Here's some pictures of one of the surfers riding today's tidal bore
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...9269126&type=1

[CdnEh]

Am I the only one that finds it slightly embarrassing that the most interesting thing to happen this city recently is a ripple of water moving down a muddy river?

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by CdnEh

Am I the only one that finds it slightly embarrassing that the most interesting thing to happen this city recently is a ripple of water moving down a muddy river?

Most of the interesting posts about Moncton these days go into the "neighbourhood" sections rather than this thread but yes, we do seem to be in the summer doldrums right now.

[BlackYear]

I'm kinda of curious to know if the whole thing isn't part of a hidden promotional package to bring tourism back to the Tidal Bore. City Hall could have easily invited these 4 surfers to an all expensive paid trip to Moncton for a week.

If this is the case, I'm guessing the total cost is around $10k. Pretty good price to pay for the amount of attention this is getting: thousands are lined up along the river, downtown businesses busy during the lunch hour, social media attention, free press, etc.

[Monctoncore]

I counted today at the Rodd and the Chateau Moncton 23 vehicles with Surfboards on them, and over heard down on the waterfront that others are interested in using the river for surfing and other water activities. The city didn't invite these surfers, they have all surfed a tidal bore in Brazi previous to this one, they were saying that they had been looking for another river similar to the one in Brazil til they found out about the Petitcodiac.

[BlackYear]

Well, invited or not, it's all great news for Downtown Moncton. After the high tide, as expected, Main street was buzzing busy and grid lock traffic.

A few picks I took today.

[josh_cat_eyes]

Maybe Moncton just found something new they can promote! "Moncton - Canadas Surf City"