SAINT JOHN - As a new Municipal Plan era is ushered in, it creates a soft landing for what has been a tumultuous year in the Port City. The result of a two-year intensive community consultation termed "PlanSJ," the Plan provides a new direction for future development and investment to counteract the sprawl that has typified growth in Saint John for decades.

SAINT JOHN - It’s official. The City has finally implemented a new municipal plan to replace the outdated 40 year-old plan whose policies have ransacked the city. Sprawl, encouraged under the old municipal plan, has shifted the population around, outside the city’s borders, and created a doughnut hole where a densely populated city once stood. Of course, this is an easy conclusion to reach with hindsight at our disposal but, to be fair, I’m sure the Council, city staff and consultants of the day had the best interests of the city at heart. In the prevailing 40 years, however, the trends and practices in urban planning have made a massive about-face. No more of this idyllic “city-country” state, the suburbs, but a focus on density, walkability, and sustainability. The residents of Saint John appear to have sensed the impact of these old outdated policies and have begun rejuvenating the city even in the absence of a new municipal plan. The city is seeing a natural resurgence and the new crowd-sourced municipal plan will be a fantastic guiding document and development tool reaffirming the direction the city is already heading in.

This feature first appeared in the Summer 2011 National Issue of Spacing Magazine. SAINT JOHN - Saint John, like many other cities its size, has suffered immensely from suburbanization over the past few decades. The city has struggled with skyrocketing property taxes and inadequate service delivery as thousands have moved away from the  core — the city’s population is an estimated 70,000, yet the daytime population is approximately 122,000 once people from the surrounding bedroom communities arrive downtown for work. However, two major projects currently underway in Saint John could reinvigorate the city and serve as a model for other Maritime communities that are facing similar predicaments.

VIEW-8198 Ship at foot of King Street, St. John, NB, 1915 (?) Wm. Notman & Son Probably 1915, 20th century Notman photographic Archives - McCord Museum To see the image file on the McCord Museum website, click on the following link: www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/VIEW-8198 Photo courtesy of the McCord Museum.

SAINT JOHN – We are now a few months into the City of Saint John’s experiment with bike lanes on Main Street in the city’s North End and, from all reports, the world hasn’t ended yet. Traffic has naturally slowed to non-freeway speeds without backing up (or really being noticed at all) and the route sees many cyclists use it every day. It has even been popular enough with pedestrians that the City thought it was necessary to issue a statement saying that the bike lanes are approved for – you guessed it – bicycles only. Too bad for the pedestrians in need of a safer walking route, but that’s another story.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Based on feedback from an earlier post on urban density, Spacing Atlantic will feature one of the top five dense residential neighbourhoods in Atlantic Canada each week. Last week's neighbourhood: Downtown St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador. So, why density? Residential density, the number of people living in a given area, is one of the most important characterisitcs of urban areas. High densities create vibrant streets, support main street commercial areas, and encourage walking, biking and transit use. But how dense should our neighbourhoods be? What types of buildings create high densities? What do high density neighbourhoods look like? Hopefully this series encourages people to look around their neighbourhood and ask: how does density affect the quality of my neighbourhood? Without further ado ...

SAINT JOHN - PlanSJ, Saint John's community exercise to produce a new Municipal Plan, is coming under criticism from the region's airport for being 'unnecessarily restrictive' and threatening the airport's long term viability. To survive, the airport hopes to diversify its revenue sources by also becoming an industrial park, and fears that PlanSJ may prevent such development. Deputy Mayor Stephen Chase sounded the alarm bell by suggesting the airport may close in five years if action isn't taken. The presentation to Common Council on Monday is available here [PDF], page 185.

Saint John, New Brunswick Photo by Gillian Barfoot, member of Spacing Atlantic's Flickr Pool.