Saint John, N.B., pumps up industrial park expansion plans, residents oppose idea

The push to expand an industrial park in Lorneville, N.B., is meeting resistance from the community.

Officials with the City of Saint John say there is a critical need for industrial land growth at its Spruce Lake Industrial Park on the southwestern edge of the city limits.

Saint John Industrial Parks general manager Ian MacKinnon and Envision Saint John CEO Andrew Beckett met with reporters Monday to share how the proposed expansion plan would offer job creation and economic development in the Saint John.

The land requires rezoning to allow or heavy industry. If approved, the industrial park would be expanded by more than 1,500 acres.

“We have the unique position to have, potentially, access to this land in an area with deep ports that don’t freeze,” MacKinnon says. “With a port, railways, the workforce here in Saint John in an industrial city, we have all these things. It’s a perfect storm.”

MacKinnon says they have already been in talks with interested businesses about the industrial park expansion.

As for the types of companies the city would attract to the new space, Andrew Beckett says it wouldn’t be the “smokestack, dirty type industries” typically associated with heavy industry.

“These are industries that are very conscious or conscious in terms of how they approach their work,” Beckett says. “We see a lot more emerging opportunities in terms of that whole sort of green transition space. There’s going to be significant investments made that we want to be able to capitalize on, but to capitalize on it we have to have land.”

Beckett says any business that would move into the new proposed space would bring significant capital investments to the area.

Since the proposed expansion was first announced last summer, the idea has been met with resistance from some residents of Lorneville, who would see the expansion take place in their backyard.

Signs are present in and around Lorneville advocating for no expansion, many of which share the simple message ’Save Lorneville’.

Among the concerns for residents are the impact to area wetlands and wildlife, and the close proximity of industrial activity to long-standing homes.

Adam Wilkins is a Lorneville resident and is a member of the ‘Save Lorneville’ group that had been meeting with the city to discuss project concerns. He feels there have been a number of communication missteps by the city.

“They’re putting words out there that they’re trying to be transparent and listening and hearing what the community has to say and addressing concerns but it’s just window dressing,” Wilkins believes. “There are no actual concerns there. As a community, you don’t feel heard.”

Wilkins says residents are not against job creation for the community but feel the plans have been rushed and not done so responsibly.

“You want economic growth, you want jobs, you want development, but at what cost?” Wilkins says. “At the cost to health and safety, to residents, at the cost of the risk to the environment, and destruction of so many acres of mature forest and wetlands.”

The city says impacts to the wetlands and woodlands would be limited, but Wilkins fears plans could change if rezoning is approved.

The other major concern is a 150-metre ‘buffer zone’ between residents’ homes and the industrial activity. At one point in the planning, Wilkins says the buffer zone was only 30 metres.

MacKinnon says the 150-metre space would be a permanent ‘buffer zone’ filled with existing green space, and the buffer between homes and industry could be up to 500 metres depending on the business.

The city is planning a public hearing to allow residents to voice their concerns to staff and council on May 12.

More information on the city’s Spruce Lake Industrial Park Expansion plan can be found here.

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