Conservation Council tells city to take walk in the park to get Officers' Square right

If the City of Fredericton wants to redevelop Officers' Square and get the public behind the project it should go back to the drawing board, saysthe executive director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

Lois Corbett is encouraging city council to redraw plans for Officers' Square in downtown Fredericton and ask the public for more input.

"You better get it right than pave it over," she said Monday.

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• Pressure mounts to save 19 trees that will be cut down in Officers' Square

After a public outcry, the $8.9-million upgrade of the Officers' Square was put on hold while city officials find a way to save some of the park's 19 trees from destruction. At least five of the trees have already been cut down.

Corbett said the conservation council got involved in the issue because of numerous calls to the organization's office and thousands of signatures on a petition to save the trees.

City council made a mistake, she said.

"Yes, you can get over it," she said."The way to get over it, and the test of getting over it, is being open and being transparent and inviting the public in to help them draw up new plans for Officers' Square."

Corbett said city council should take interested parties on a walk along Queen Street to Officers' Square for an outdoor open session, where people can look around and talk about what they enjoy about the space and which parts need to be preserved.

They should also talk about what areas need fixing, including the historic wall, and put the trees into context.

People could sketch out of their ideas and produce a drawing that park consultants could work with.

"Those types of options give people a better sense of clarity of the next steps," she said. "It gives folks an opportunity to weigh the pros and cons of both options."

Commission chair resigns

Meanwhile, the new chair of Fredericton's Tree Commission has suddenly stepped down from her role.

SarahWeatherby'sresignation comes shortly after the commission decided to get involved in the Officers' Square controversy.

In a previous interview with Information Morning Fredericton,Weatherbysaid she's hoping the city will hold off on the upgrades altogether and assess the real need for them.

"Sometimes with these new developments, we're losing sight of what's really important," Weatherby said.

Corbett said council could even go one step further and introduce a bylaw that would require more carefully considered decisions about when trees can be cut down for development.

People in Fredericton and across the province, care about their green space, she said.

"Whether it's a result of [post-tropical storm Arthur] when we lost so many trees, or whether that was always there in part of Fredericton citizens' genetic makeup, councillors and the mayor and the planners at city hall should've been aware that we care about their fate," she said.

In the day of climate change, she said, it's also important for the public to prepare to grow cities to contain green infrastructure.

"Building more concrete pads, ripping down more green spaces and paving them over, is just not an attitude of today's modern development processes," she said.

Communication is key

Corbettsympathized with city council, which hosted several committee meetings. But there was a lack of communication, whether withinthe confines of city hall, with the officials drawing up plans, or between councillors and citizens, she said.

"It seems to me to be a bit of a storm all the way along the public front here," she said. "The complete plan was never really shown in all of its detail."

She doesn't think the public was involved in the details of the plan or putting their ideas forward.

"We don't see this back and forth," she said. "We see this clumped down [in]PowerPoint presentations," she said. "That's never a good way to communicate."

Last week, councillors grilled city staff on every detail of the proposed revitalization plan at Officers' Square.

At the meeting, councillors tackled questions such aswhether a main stage could be replaced with a portable one, or if the skating rink could be adjusted to prevent the cutting of more trees.

Councillors also looked at what needs to be done to fix the historic wall along the park.

Corbett said councillors were a bit late showing up to the game, asking questions that should've been tackled months ago in a public forum, "if they paid attention."

Protesters wrap Officer's Square trees in blankets

6 years ago

Duration 0:53

A development that will force 19 trees to be cut down at Officers' Square will continue as planned, the mayor of Fredericton says.

"It seems to me to be a bit of a storm all the way along the public front here," she said. "The complete plan was never really shown in all of its detail."

Now she said there's conspiracy theories circulating about what's motivating council to revamp the downtown park and who's behind it.

"We've got a much more stark interpretation going out there in the real world, as opposed to a clearly debated set of options," she said.