Ottawa helps drive push for more housing in Fredericton, but in whose backyard?
Intense backlash to recent proposals hints at hurdles to build new homes
The City of Fredericton has successfully sold the federal government on its need to rapidly build more housing, but it may still have to convince an even tougher crowd.
As part of its national $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund, Ottawa is giving Fredericton $10.3 million, some of which is expected to help developers build about 300 homes over the next three years.
However, a recent history of housing proposals in Fredericton hints at hurdles that still need to be overcome — namely, opposition from other residents.
"We all know that as these changes are happening in the city, that it's difficult for people, and the look and the feel of their neighborhood might change a little bit, and that's hard and we are sensitive to that," said Mayor Kate Rogers, in an interview Monday.
"But there is also a real need [for more housing] and we need to address that real need and it's on us to do that as sensitively as possible."
Cedar
Valley Investments' proposal would see apartment buildings constructed
on the southern two-thirds of the property, with townhouses and detached
homes on the northern and eastern sides of the property. (City of Fredericton)
A large proposal in the Golf Club Road neighbourhood narrowly passed a vote at council in November after neighbours mounted an intense campaign against it that saw more than 150 letters of objection sent to city hall.
And in December, council voted down a housing proposal on Gibson Street following a similar campaign by neighbours in that area.
The Gibson Street proposal comprised 88 housing units and was the only residential rezoning application to be rejected by council in 2023, according to city spokesperson Shasta Stairs.
Council approved a total of 21 residential rezoning applications in 2023, totalling 5,346 units, though some of those are part of larger properties with multiple phases to be developed over time, she said.
More engagement by developers needed, says mayor
When a developer requires a zoning bylaw amendment to build apartments or townhouses, the fate of their proposal is ultimately decided by councillors.
But before the final vote is made, the public is given the chance to appear before council to share their support or opposition to the plan.
Fredericton
Mayor Kate Rogers says she thinks developers need to do more engagement
with residents if they want to mitigate the chances of their proposal
facing opposition. (Aidan Cox/CBC)
Asked about her reaction to the backlash to the two proposals, Rogers said she thinks they signal a need for developers to do more to get the community on side with their plans.
"We need to be working more when these applications are coming forward to make certain that the neighbours, the residents living in that area, are very aware of what is happening," she said.
"We're going to be looking to the developers when they put forward applications, that they are meeting, engaging with the public in advance so that they're aware."
An example where engagement worked
When a developer applies to rezone a property, the "low bar" is to just let the municipality inform residents within a 100-metre radius about it, said Rob LeBlanc director of planning at Fathom Studio, a planning and design firm based in Dartmouth, N.S.
Part of what LeBlanc does for Fathom is work with developers to raise that bar by consulting residents on what's being proposed in their neighbourhood.
Public
engagement is an important step for developers to take if they want
their rezoning application to be successful, said Rob LeBlanc, director
of planning at Fathom Studio. (Submitted by Fathom Studio)
Last June, his team held an open house event in Fredericton's McLeod Hill Road neighbourhood to do just that.
In October, councillors unanimously voted in favour of the proposal to construct apartment buildings, townhouses and detached homes totalling 1,475 units.
"The developer made my job real easy," said Coun. Mark Peters, whose ward includes the rezoned property, speaking after the vote.
"I only heard from constituents when [the developers] were in there actually clearing the land before they did the public engagement, and I think that's kind of what brought on the public engagement. After that, I had zero emails, zero phone calls on it."
LeBlanc said he credits the application's success largely to the open house event.
"We held it at one of the local gyms and we brought, I think it was 12 or 15 big poster-sized displays that had all kinds of details about the project," he said.
Fathom
Studio hosted an open house event last June to consult residents on a
planned rezoning to allow hundreds of new apartment and townhouse units
to be built in the McLeod Hill Road area. (Submitted by Rob LeBlanc)
Feedback from attendees resulted in the developers deciding to rearrange the location of park space, as well as to build detached homes, rather than townhouses, next to existing detached homes in the neighbourhood.
"We need housing rapidly, and that doesn't have to compromise the quality of communities," LeBlanc said.
"And so if you can work with the community to understand its values, there's usually a good way to get an effective development built, and that just means getting out there and listening to what people are afraid of and what they'd like to see."
CBC News asked Louie Youssef, the developer behind the Golf Club Road proposal, for an interview about how developers can mitigate the chance their proposals face public opposition.
In an email, Youssef declined providing an interview, but said he doesn't think the housing crisis will be solved in his lifetime unless things change dramatically.
Strong emotions amid a changing city
Up until about the early 2000s, residential housing in Fredericton largely developed in a less dense, suburban format, said Matthew Hayes, an urban sociologist and professor at St. Thomas University.
But as vacant land has become more scarce, developers have looked to build up in order to increase density.
That's where the ambitions of developers might rub up against those of existing residents, who bought into a neighbourhood for a certain style and charm, he said.
Matthew
Hayes, an urban sociologist and professor at St. Thomas University,
said he thinks there'd be value borne out of making the planning
approval process more democratic in Fredericton. (Tori Weldon/CBC)
"Those are real and important emotions and sentiments and problems in people's lives," Hayes said.
"And it seems that, you know, in a couple of key developments, there has been a kind of development-as-a-right, you know, 'This, this is mine, I'm going to do it', and this has caused conflict with people in communities."
Opponents of new housing developments have themselves faced pushback, with the term NIMBY — short for "not in my backyard" — being used to describe residents who stand against changes to their neighbourhood.
Hayes said that term has different uses for different people, but at the end of the day, has come to underscore how emotionally divided some have become over how their city develops.
"So [the term NIMBY] is always used in ways that are designed to portray people's emotions as irrational or unfair ... and that doesn't necessarily, you know, advance projects or advance, you know, communities coming together to deal with some of the difficult decisions that need to be made."
Fathom
Studio successfully rezoned property near the intersection of McLeod
Hill and Royal roads giving them permission to construct a series of
apartment buildings, townhouses and detached homes comprising a total of
1,475 units. (City of Fredericton)
With Fredericton doubling down on efforts to encourage more housing development, Hayes said it's possible that more controversial proposals will come forward.
As that happens, he said there will be value in a more "democratic urban planning" approach that takes ideas from residents about the kind of city they want to live in.
"I think that some of the changes that are taking place are potentially very exciting, but they also are going to clash with certain groups and it will be interesting to see how that plays out," Hayes said.
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In an email, Youssef declined providing an interview, but said he doesn't think the housing crisis will be solved in his lifetime unless things change dramatically."
Hmmm
Housing has become a 2021 municipal election issue
"Louie Youssef is the owner of Cedar Valley Investments Ltd. and perhaps the most visible candidate in Ward 11 with signs on the lawns of many of his properties. He owns more than 400 apartments in the city."
“A city is about more than just a collection of property developments,” says sociologist and former mayoral candidate Matthew Hayes.
“It is not a question of whether developers are good or bad people, it is about whether city council is able to get them to work together to build projects that are inclusive and that add value to the city as a whole. That takes more public engagement and more willingness to work together, instead of at cross-purposes, than has been the case of late,” Hayes said.
“If you build a building with a brick streetscape, you are stripping value off the street for the life of that building. So you need a council willing to push people to work together,” he added.
CBC News · Posted: May 07, 2012 2:20 PM ADT
"On the very day that Matthew announced his candidacy for mayor, he was introduced as Matthew Hayes, Occupy New Brunswick," Woodside said.
Hayes responded that the panel simply discussed important political issues, issues that he thinks are important to all New Brunswickers.
"This was a talk called 'Occupy Politics' and it was about the important public issue of how representative politics is no longer representing people," Hayes said.
Hayes had organized a series of speakers during the Occupy activities, which began last fall.
"This was an opportunity to bring professionals from the university to a broader audience in the community," he said.
Hayes said he felt it was important to be involved in the series because of his interest in inequality."
Fredericton councillors vote to remove horse racing as permitted activity at N.B. Ex site
Mayor says move aimed at clearing up 'confusion' about whether it's allowed at site slated for redevelopment
Fredericton councillors have approved bylaw changes that close the door on harness racing events happening again at the New Brunswick Exhibition grounds.
In a move described by Mayor Kate Rogers as "housekeeping," councillors at Monday night's general meeting voted for changes to Fredericton's zoning bylaw that no longer permit the grounds on Smythe Street to be used as a racetrack and remove the term "horse racing" from the list of activities included in the definition of "public exhibition grounds."
While the City of Fredericton owns the 31-acre property, the N.B. Ex holds a long-term lease on it, expiring in 2032, and oversees operations at the site.
The property includes an indoor exhibit centre and coliseum, horse stables, the track and a parking lot with space for 1,000 vehicles.
Rogers said following an agreement with the N.B. Ex in 2021, the city formally adopted a secondary municipal plan that lays out a vision for redeveloping the site that would remove the racetrack to make way for apartment buildings, a park and potentially a new school.
Rogers said Monday night's vote was about updating the city's zoning bylaw so that it aligns with the already-adopted N.B. Ex secondary municipal plan.
Fredericton
Mayor Kate Rogers says the changes are intended to clear up any
confusion as to whether horse racing is allowed at the Exhibition
Grounds. (Aidan Cox/CBC)
"That was a really important one because there was confusion in the community — is this [horse racing] allowed? Is it not allowed? And so it was really important that just everything aligned," Rogers said.
Rogers said it would still be possible to hold horse racing events at the site, but an organizer would first need to acquire a temporary variance permit from the city's planning advisory committee. She said other provincial approval would also be required given the site is a protected well-field area.
Backdrop of concerns
While Rogers described Monday's vote as housekeeping, it comes against a backdrop of concerns by some N.B. Ex members about the organization's readiness to make good on its earlier commitment to get rid of the race track.
At last November's annual general meeting, N.B. Ex executive director Jeff McCarthy told members he was hoping to see harness racing events return to the site in 2024, even though formal events haven't been held there since 2016.
Mike
Vokey, former executive director of the New Brunswick Exhibition, said
he hoped the zoning bylaw amendments would make it clear there's no
chance of bringing back horse racing to the site in Fredericton. (Aidan Cox/CBC)
David Brown, a member of the N.B. Ex who's in favour of seeing the redevelopment carried out, at the time said comments by McCarthy and six newly elected board members at the annual meeting raised concerns about how ready and willing the organization is to give up the track.
"The six people who got elected, all of them made statements in general talking about how much they enjoy harness racing, how much, you know, they've valued being a member of the N.B. Ex and want to continue along the same path that it is right now," Brown said, in an interview last November.
Those concerns also follow discussions in fall 2022 by some Horse Racing New Brunswick members about a desire to "seize" the track at the N.B. Ex by encouraging its members to register for membership with the N.B. Ex to tip the board in their favour.
Months later, Mike Vokey, the Ex's executive director who worked on the redevelopment plan with the city, revealed he'd been fired after being told the board wanted to take the organization in "a different direction."
Vokey attended Monday's council meeting and said he hopes the zoning bylaw changes make it clear that harness racing isn't coming back to the N.B. Ex site.
"There's this perception that the plan isn't, you know, concrete or they can be changed. Well the plan, it really it can't. It's been accepted by both both the exhibition and the city," he said.
"So this really clears the path forward. I think there's an opportunity now. Maybe you'll see some interest from developers who … maybe come up with some plans and some ideas to really see how this could benefit the city and benefit the exhibition."
Differences in urgency to execute plan
Speaking after Monday's council meeting, Rogers said the amendments weren't a response to possible efforts to scuttle the redevelopment, and she remained adamant they were simply procedural.
But Rogers said while the city "feels a real sense of urgency" about redeveloping the grounds, she doesn't get the same energy from the board of the N.B. Ex.
"I think they very rightfully so are, as an organization, wondering whether they're going to be able to carry out some of the activities that they typically carry out on those grounds, and we have to respect that."
While options have been proposed as to how the site gets developed, a final decision rests with a committee made up of city councillors and staff, as well as N.B. Ex staff and board members. All final decisions will require consensus among members.
That committee has already started meeting and is working to agree on a list of terms of reference, said Ken Forrest, Fredericton's director of planning.
Once agreed to, members will get started on the first phase, which seeks to develop the northeast corner of the property by the end of this year, he said.
"Phase one would be trying to get a start at … a development happening there that would be supportive of the city's affordable housing ambitions," he said.
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but of course, there will be legal issues of which he city will lose, and the taxpayers get to pay!! If they do lose, the council should be removed! and hire good legal advisers!!
$10M in federal funds for multi-unit housing in Fredericton
City expects new programs to create nearly 300 units over 3 years
Fredericton will receive more than $10 million from the federal government to help encourage the rapid development of nearly 300 housing units in the next three years.
"We'll be able to get more houses built faster," said Mayor Kate Rogers.
"It certainly won't cover all of the need, but it will be a piece of it."
The funding, under the housing accelerator fund, will be used for a series of grant programs to encourage high-density and mixed-use housing changes to cut red tape in the permit process.
Rogers said the city is committed to ensuring many of the new houses are "economical," given the lack of affordable housing in the area. She said they will be working with market developers, non-profits, co-ops, and they will be encouraging alternative types of units, such as garden suites and modular homes.
"We recognize where the need is, and right now we sort of call it that missing middle," she said. "Working folks who need housing that are feeling priced out of the market."
Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers says the city is focused on encouraging the construction of affordable housing units. (Aidan Cox/CBC)
Rogers said the city will also be looking at making city-owned land more affordable and appealing to developers by putting services in place.
Fredericton applied for the funding through the federal fund, a $4-billion program designed to speed up housing construction across Canada. Fredericton's request was based on the city's affordable housing strategy.
The changes to cut red tape and encourage development could provide enough incentive to build 2,500 homes in Fredericton over the next decade, according to the federal government.
Several of the new programs require zoning and bylaw changes, including a condition that the city allow four-unit dwellings by default in all residential areas.
Rogers said some of the bylaw and land-use changes have already been made, while others will go before council for approval and public comment in the coming months. She said the city will have to consider which areas can accommodate multi-unit buildings.
"The city is always balancing that, how do we maintain the feel of the neighbourhood while also increasing the density of the neighbourhood," she said.
Rogers said the money could help speed up developments that are currently in the planning stages.
"This funding helps us to get that done faster and also get money into the hands of developers who want to work with us to build the types of development that we need in this city," she said.
The federal government made similar announcements in other New Brunswick cities earlier this month, committing more than $15 million in Moncton and nearly $9.2 million in Saint John.
In Moncton, the city anticipates the funding it will receive will result in 490 new units over the next three years.
In Saint John, the city expects to see 285 new housing units in the same time frame.
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"In early November, Premier Blaine Higgs reportedly said he was considering legislation to block federal housing funding from being given directly to municipalities.
When Global News asked for comment regarding the funding announcement, Higgs said in an e-mailed statement: “Bypassing provincial governments is not the solution. Collaboration is key here as we need all three levels of government to work together on housing and other critical files.”
He also said: “We are also asking for the same consideration that Quebec has in place to work directly with the federal government on key funding initiatives geared to our communities.”
Quebec’s legislation requires the federal government to collaborate with the province rather than municipal governments.
When asked about this at the funding announcement, Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe federal MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor said Higgs should “put money on the table” for housing, and create incentives for builders."
Higgs and our inter gov affairs minister don't see eye to oeil
N.B. finished last in Maritimes in 2023 housing starts, despite cancelling rent caps
Province claimed policy protecting tenants was hurting development
Efforts among the Maritime provinces to have more housing built quickly show Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia are having more success than New Brunswick, despite the New Brunswick government's loosening of tenant rent protections last year in an effort to boost development.
According to data compiled by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, New Brunswick saw construction begin on 4,547 new housing units from January through December 2023, including houses, townhouses, apartments and condominiums.
That was 2.8 per cent fewer units beginning construction than in 2022.
The 2023 total represents 545 new housing starts in New Brunswick per 100,000 people, based on July 1 population numbers.
That was below the national average for the year and well behind numbers over the same period posted by both P.E.I., which had 655 housing starts per 100,000, and Nova Scotia, which had 676 per 100,000.
Warren
Maddox is executive director of Fredericton Homeless Shelters and says
that progress on getting homes built in New Brunswick has been too slow. (Edwin Hunter/CBC)
"That's disappointing. I hadn't heard that before," said Warren Maddox, the executive director of Fredericton Homeless Shelters Inc.
Maddox has been advocating for a quicker response by government to New Brunswick's housing shortage but said even he didn't realize other provinces were doing that much better getting new housing started.
"There's a lot of talk. Everyone knows what needs to happen," said Maddox.
"We can talk about it all we want. We need to get some housing built."
All three Maritime provinces have made new housing a priority to cope with surges in their populations.
At the end of 2023, 2.1 million people were living in the region according to estimates by Statistics Canada — 152,000 more than three years earlier.
That growth has outstripped the supply of housing in each province and triggered escalations in real estate prices and upward pressure on the cost of rent. It's also driven hundreds of vulnerable residents into homelessness.
Alan
Roy of Service New Brunswick told MLAs last year the government had no
evidence other than the word of landlords and developers that rent caps
were impeding new housing construction in New Brunswick. (Jacques Poitras)
Last June, the New Brunswick government estimated the province needs 6,000 new housing units per year to deal with the shortage and said it would be relying heavily on private developers to make that happen by "creating conditions" that incentivize building.
One of those incentives implemented at the end of 2022 was to cancel a policy that capped the size of rent increases New Brunswick tenants can be charged each year.
In January 2023 under questioning at the Legislature's Crown corporations committee, the chief executive officer of Service New Brunswick, the body in charge of housing issues at the time, told MLAs that developers and landlords had convinced the province that a hard limit on rent increases was impeding new construction.
"The rent cap itself had some negative consequences," said Alan Roy during his testimony.
"We were advised and made aware in some of the stakeholder consultations we were having that it was discouraging development of new units."
Kent South Liberal MLA Benoît Bourque, a former Service New Brunswick minister, said he found it "disturbing" that the government killed rent cap protections for tenants based only on comments from developers, and asked Roy if the province had any independent data to show rent cap protections for tenants were restricting the construction of new units.
"No," said Roy.
"It would have been comments I would have received first-hand from individuals that were either pulling out of a province because they implemented a rent cap and they told us first-hand if that's what's happening in a jurisdiction I won't be building there — so that is first-hand evidence that I would have heard."
Last
year Kent South Liberal MLA Benoît Bourque asked for any independent
evidence the New Brunswick had showing rent caps for tenants were
hurting housing development. None was provided. (Michel Corriveau/Radio-Canada)
Bourque pointed out that several provinces — including P.E.I. and Nova Scotia — have rent caps and asked if they have seen housing construction suffer as a result.
" Are you aware of any jurisdictions where rent caps stifled the development of rental housing?" asked Bourque.
"No, I am not aware whether it stifled or not," replied Roy.
" Again I was going with verbatim comments I would have received from landlords in particular."
Matthew Hayes is a sociology professor at St. Thomas University and a spokesperson for the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights.
He said because eliminating rent caps for tenants in New Brunswick did nothing to boost new housing construction in 2023 and retaining the policy in the other Maritime provinces appeared not to undermine development, there is no reason caps should not be reinstated.
Matthew
Hayes is with the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights. He's
calling for a return of rent caps after P.E.I. and Nova Scotia kept
theirs and still posted more housing starts than New Brunswick in 2023. (Pascal Raiche-Nogue/Radio-Canada)
"We absolutely need a rent cap as quickly as possible. That is a minimal and costless intervention into the market to provide security for New Brunswickers." said Hayes.
"The majority of Canadians have rent control. There's been lots of development in other provinces. Lack of development here is completely unrelated to rent control," he said.
Julia Woodhall-Melnik, a housing specialist at the University of New Brunswick and co-director of its Housing, Mobilization and Engagement Research Lab, said it is difficult to draw conclusions from one year of data but it does appear to her the government's belief that rent caps restrict development has been debunked by what's happening in the three provinces.
"I'd like to see the data over a longer period of time but what it is showing me right now is that there was no evidence for the claim that rent control would impact development," said Woodhall-Melnik. "Right now that argument doesn't look like it holds weight with what we're seeing."
In an email, a spokesperson for the New Brunswick government said it is looking into what 2023 housing start numbers show but it has not yet finished that analysis.
"We are going to need more time," said the email. "We are waiting to verify a few details before we are able to share what we have."
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Please please call an election. We need to turn this ship around.
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