Canada/Moncton City Council adopts Gateway Tower project
The controversial project for two 17-storey towers in Moncton will finally go ahead, following approval by city council.
It was approved after a vote of seven councillors to three. However, the development was subject to 19 conditions.
Bill Budd, Director of Development and Planning for the City of Moncton, points out that the developer is obliged to meet these conditions before proceeding with the project.
Mitigation measures
The buildings will be constructed in a flood zone.
One of the conditions of approval for the Gateway Towers project is that the builder include mitigation measures.
He must also develop a detailed landscaping plan that will allow members of the public access to Riverain Park.
Project developer John Lafford, however, was reassuring as he left the meeting room.
This development, because it's vertical, will have less impact on the environment. This is not the case for a horizontal development.
A quote from John Lafford, developer of Gateway Towers
Disappointed citizens
Discontent was evident on the faces of the dozens of citizens who attended the municipal meeting, held at the Centre Avenir.
They were calling for a moratorium and an environmental and social impact study.
They also called for in-depth public discussion of the project.
We're certainly disappointed. Let's face it, we were pretty sure the city council was going to pass the proposal for this development.
A quote from Moncton resident Hélène Branch
What we're hoping for now is to have raised enough concerns so that, perhaps in the end, we'll have guarantees that the rest of the waterfront park will remain untouched," she continues.
Strong citizen mobilization
The Centre Avenir room allocated for the municipal council meeting, due to the ongoing work at city hall, was packed to capacity.
The discussions, which lasted more than two hours, reflected the interest in the Gateway project on the part of elected officials and citizens alike.
Now that the Gateway Tower project has been approved, the developer plans to begin site clean-up before the end of the year.
Construction of the two 17-storey towers south of Assomption Boulevard will begin in 2025. Construction is expected to take three to four years.
Source: ici.radio-canada.ca