Bathurst mayor, community college disappointed student residence plan defeated by council

The president of the Collge communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick hoped a new development at 495 Riverside Drive in Bathurst would be home to 34 students this fall.

Instead, Pierre Zundel says, the struggle for students to find a place to live in the small northern city of about 12,000 will continue for those enrolled at the college.

Developers Mike Doucet and Chris Drysdale brought the project to Bathurstcouncil in late February. The plan was to renovatea long-vacant building to create student housing,including 32 rooms, two of them doubles, with common bathrooms, kitchens and living spaces.

The development required re-zoning but after opposition from about a dozen residents in addition to a petition council voted against the project in a vote of five to four.

"I was very disappointed by the decision of the council," Zundel said. "Housing is tight, it is a limiting factor for us."

Zundel believes the residents opposed to the project misunderstood what the developer had in mind.

Neighbours raised concerns the residence would become a drug house or "flop house," increase traffic in the area, create noise and nuisance for the community and affect property values.

"People may simply not understand what the arrangement is," Zundel said. "You know, they may put unnecessary weight on scenarios that are not going to happen."

Student housing needed for CCNB expansion

Zundel warns that attracting new students, and retaining them after they graduate, is becoming increasingly difficult with housing in short supply.

The community college is expanding and investing $150 million to centralize the Bathurst campus, creating a "community hub" for international students. But Zundel said residents must be on the same page.

After the student housing development was turned down, Zundel returned to councilto explain the importance of students to the provincial workforce and economy.

"Students who come there are not young kids just out of high school most of our students are 26 or 27. They're there to get a career, to get the training for a career, and they're not there to mess around," he said.

"If you look at the track record of our students in housing in all the regions in New Brunswick where we have campuses, that record is excellent and our students are good tenants."

Zundel said the college is constructing a new $100-million building on College Street which will also contain student housing, but said on-campus housing will not be enough in the long term. Only about 20 to 25 per cent of community college students live on campus, while the rest choose to live off campus for "all kinds of reasons."

"Some of them want to live with particular people. In some cases they're married with children," he said.

Residents oppose student residence

A dozen letters were presented to Bathurstcouncil during a recent three-and-a-half hour long meeting.

Resident Richard Mann lives on Riverside Drive and said that while he wants to see the vacant building developed, he did not support the proposal.

"City council purposely renamed the development proposal referring to it as student residence there is a high probability that this proposal as currently presented could gradually develop into a flop house," he wrote.

Mann went on to say he worries Riverside Drive will become a "slum" with "private rooming houses," which will decrease property values.

Mann and other residents told council that student housing should have full-time security on site, with a supervisor responsible for cleaning and maintaining the property.

However, the developers said the building would not be monitored by CCNB and that there would be security cameras and entry cards, along with rules and regulations, like any apartment building or residence.

Charlene Ouelette, who also lives on Riverside Drive, said she already has student neighbours. She complained of picking up their garbage multiple times and of noisy parties.

"In one instance someone even threw up in my lawn," she said in her letter to council.

CBC contacted severalof the residents to discuss their concerns about the proposed development, but none were willing to do an interview.

'Not in my back yard' in Bathurst

Bathurst Mayor Kim Chamberlain was "baffled" by council's vote not to go ahead with the re-zoning, which would have allowedthe student residence.

She said she had"absolutely no concern" about the development.

"There is absolutely no reason why that should have been refused, absolutely no reason but they refused it, and I have to respect that and move forward," said Chamberlain.

"Hopefully for the next development for student housing we will make sure that maybe they have the information that they require to ensure that this doesn't happen again."

The mayor called on residents to be more "open-minded," since this is the first development of many on the horizon. She said the city has funds available to accelerate and prioritize housing and many developers are interested in building, but the "not in my backyard" attitude is restricting them.

"NIMBY-ism exists across the province," she said. "I spoke to other mayors and they are all saying the same thing."

Chamberlain saidwith the increasing cost of living, Bathurst must increase its property base and warned that without development, residents could face an increase in their property taxes.

"If we don't make changes, funding will not come with it. We will be one of the cities that will be bypassed and they'll give it to Moncton, Fredericton and Saint John, where they are developing," she said.