Six stories instead of ten will be considered for a proposed residential and commercial building on the Northwest corner of Vaughn Harvey Boulevard and Main Street.
During a Moncton City Council meeting held Monday night, City Planner Bill Budd told Councillors, “There is a section on flexibility in height and I just want to mention, the developers have indicated that they may be open to reducing the height of the building. The plan building design would remain the same, but they might be open to reducing from ten to six.”
Budd stipulated if it were to be reduced to six stories, the residential portion would include at least 90 or 95 units.
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Councillor Daniel Bourgeois questioned this reconsideration, “When I asked this question three weeks ago, I was told by the developer, who was very adamant that if it wasn’t ten stories, the project wouldn’t be feasible. What changed, if anything between three weeks ago, that would sort of reverse his position, being so adamant to ten stories to now being flexible to six?”
Developer Chad Blakney responded, “We listened to the community. We initially purchased this land and analyzed it looking at a ten-storey building. We’ve invested a lot in the land, and we ran our financial model on a ten-storey building. We are running the numbers now for a six-storey building. We probably would have paid something different for the land if we initially were looking at six-storey building. We want to listen to the community and we don’t want to be demonized. If the numbers make sense, we can proceed that route over ten stories.”
When the project was first proposed, several residents in surrounding neighbourhoods, raised concerns about issues including the height, traffic, construction noise, and lack of sun.
Budd adds they also completed a shadow study, to see how the hourly progression of the sun affects the site and found that only two neighbouring properties were affected. He says the study also found only two hours where those properties were fully impacted.
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Councillor Paulette Theriault expressed disappointment, “Having lived in larger cities, these are beautiful buildings and there must be a way that we can grow gardens and we can find plants that will thrive in some shade. I’m looking at the three sisters and they’re beautiful, the height. This is about downtown living. I really would like to see in our city, encouraging and supporting developers that come with these really beautiful projects.”
Mayor Dawn Arnold also expressed her support for this project, “I really hope that you can do the ten stories. Literally, every meeting I go to it’s about accommodation right now. So I am hopeful that you can fulfill the vision that you wanted from the beginning.”
Requests were also made for the addition of a park or green space where families can gather.
Moncton City Council unanimously approved the rezoning of the land in order for the development to go ahead.
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