Millidgeville apartment plan fails to get green light from Saint John PAC

Saint John's planning advisory committee surprised the people backing a Millidgeville apartment project Tuesday by recommending against the proposal.

The plan, by developer Charles Bird, would seetwo, four-storey buildings placed on a former church property on Millidge Avenue.

It is being recommended by city planning staff, who say the location isin an "intensification" area dedicated to greater density.

But opponents crowded the two small rooms being used for the committee hearings Tuesday night.

The committee also received 37 letters about the project, the vast majority opposed.

Many raise concerns about the density and height of the project, which would be placed on a 1.9-acre lot (about seven-tenths of ahectare).

Neighbour Hazel Kerr described the profile the buildings would create as "a blot on the horizon," when compared to the single family homes surrounding it.

"It's great that the city needs apartments, but there's a right place and a wrong place," said another opponent, Yuriy Klitinskiy.

Gary Sullivan, Saint John council's representative on the advisory committee,is also a Millidgeville resident.

Hemade the motion to recommend against the 88-unit development.

"I've had a really hard time with this," said Sullivan. "I know it will be a quality project, I just don't think it's the right thing for that area."

The amount of opposition caught the developers off guard.

"We didn't expect 37 people to show up against this. We had knocked on all the doors, we thought we understood how the community felt," said engineer Andrew Toole, who was representing the proponent on the application.

Toole said he would reach out to some of theneighbours toaddress their concerns before the proposal goes to a city council vote on Feb. 10.

A second apartment project, planned for the Gothic Arches site on the city's Central Peninsula got a unanimous recommendation for approval from the committee.

A series of supporters spoke in favour of the proposal, which would see a seven-storey building with 83 high-end units constructed on the Wentworth Street property.