Petition grows against proposed St. John's condo development

A St. John's man is gathering signatures on a petition opposing a proposed condo development that he says threatens the last naturalized green space in the city's downtown.

The 1.2-acre spacesits between Garrison Hill and St. Andrew's Church. Jeff Foranhas lived in the area for the past decade, and says the space is different from other green spaces around the city.

"It's not a park, it's not a planned area," Foran toldThe St. John's Morning Show. "It doesn't see the same kind of use as Bannerman[Park], for example, in that it's not full of benches, it's not where people congregate. It's more a green space with inherent value."

It's also the site that Parish Lane Development is proposing be turned into condos, whichwould cutdown the mostly deciduous trees in the area,along with demolishing sections of the old Cathedral Parish Hall on Queens Road.

Foran says the city doesn't need more condos.

"They want 40 condos in that space," Foran said. "My question is, what about all the other condos currently for sale in St. John'sdowntownthat are not being bought up?"

Foran has started a petition asking city council to deny the proposal. He says he has collected more than1,200 signatures.

"When we were circulating this petition to stop this rezoning as soon as [my partner] said 'condos,' people were in tears, begging, 'Can we please sign your petition?'" Foran said.

"We don't want another part of St. John's to become, you know, what the horror of our neighbourhood has become."

When asked to respond to Foran's criticism, a representative of Parish Lane Development referred CBC to itsproposal, which says the green space is being taken into account in all stages of development. Parish Lane's land-use assessment report says larger trees in the space will be protected during construction, with work overseen by the city's arborist.New trees will also be planted on the site as part of redeveloping the landscape.

Committing to a climate emergency?

Foran said he hopes city council's declarationearlier this month ofa climate emergencycould helphis fight to preserve the green space.

"I used that as an argument, as a jumping off point to say, 'All right, if you recognize a climate emergency, why are you even allowing someone to propose cutting down a forest?'" Foran said.

"I'm a junior high teacher, and certainly my Grade 7s would say cutting down forests is probably not the most ecologically sound move."

• Motion to recognize climate change emergency passes unanimously in St. John's

Coun. Maggie Burton saidthe city has different angles to consider with proposals like condos, but is open to comment from the public.

"It's really important to make sure that we can balance the needs of improving access to residential dwelling units and also live up to our climate action promises," Burton said. "I know that people are really responding to that. There's a lot to consider."

Foran hopes he and other petition signers can convince council against the development, addinghe and others will attend a public meeting with the project developers on Nov. 27.

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