Downtown Development - Hotel Proposal

Councillor Shannie Duff says “the St. John’s city council will have some serious thinking to do” with regards to the recent application by Southwest Properties to build an 11-storey hotel on the corner of Water and Prescott streets.

The citizens of St. John’s “will have some serious thinking to do” as well. We will have to let councillors know our thoughts on this issue. Do we want our city to adhere to its current municipal plan, that designates certain areas of downtown to height and density restrictions, or do we want the municipal plan ignored and allow an open planning approach to the downtown core?

This is a very important issue and will define the essence and character of St. John’s.

I, for one, believe the city should preserve its current municipal plan for the downtown core. It is the European style of the city that makes it unique among North American cities and is one of the reasons both residents and tourists are drawn to the city.

If the majority of councillors do not agree with the current municipal plan they should consult with citizens to assess the need for a revision of the plan. The current practice, when faced with similar submissions, is to use their “discretionary power” to circumvent planning guidelines. On many of these occasions the arguments put forward are tax revenues and job creation. Surely these aspects do not disappear if the proposed development is located in a different area of the city.

Another issue associated with this development is hotel accommodation. Does the city need another hotel? There are at least two hotel developments already approved by council with another accommodation development approved for Duckworth Street. In an economic report submitted to council earlier this year, the 2007 occupancy rate for hotels within the city was cited at 67.4%. This does not indicate that the city is in desperate need of more hotel accommodation. Is St. John’s to become a city of half-full hotels and/or disused hotel buildings? There certainly needs to be consideration given to this argument within the approval process.

The approval of this development as submitted or non-adherence to the current municipal plan in any way, will open the opportunity for other developments within the downtown core that could lead to a totally different architectural picture of St. John’s.

Citizens should let their councillors know what kind of the city they want. Are we to preserve the current heritage integrity of the city or do we want to shape it in a different way?