Uptown business group asks city to help mitigate effects of construction

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SAINT JOHN – Uptown Saint John Business Improvement Association staff have asked council to try and help mitigate the effects of construction on local businesses. 

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A letter sent to council, signed by executive director Nancy Tissington, says its members are “seeking in tandem with these projects a percentage of the city’s marketing and/or capital budget be allocated to support impacted businesses in advance of and for the duration of construction.” 

As well, they are seeking a “point of contact for issues arising, parking, notices, updates and any other elements that affect the day-to-day operations” of small businesses in the area.

A dollar amount can be discussed in the future, said Tissington, but she told Brunswick News the group’s main concern is that construction by private developers, who get their permits from the city and develop properties on their own, can often unintentionally interfere with local business.  

She said uptown streets were dug up en masse by the city over the summer, with infrastructure improvements needed beneath Charlotte Street and several other areas. But with private developers, she said, contractors can often take up parking or put pieces of equipment, such as dumpsters or cranes, near store fronts, interfering with customers making their way inside a shop. 

Tissington said city staff did what she called an excellent job over the summer in being available to local businesses, helping them understand what was happening and whether there would be road closures or excessive noise. But with private developers, the same amount of communication does not seem to be happening. 

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“A private development, such as 99 King for example, gets a permit from the city, they come in, they may shut down the sidewalk with a dumpster, or (their contractors) may take over parking nearby with no communication coming out to the neighbouring businesses,” she said. “Whether it’s good or bad news, the communication is lacking from the privatized developers, so we’re asking the city when they go forward with permits, to put some construction mitigation components into their permitting.” 

As an example, she pointed to King Street businesses that have lost parking spaces in front of their store fronts. Some business owners show up to open their stores in the morning not knowing how much noise they’ll have to face or whether a dumpster will be sitting in front of their doors. 

“We’re not against development; we can’t wait to see residents in these (new buildings) because they’ll support small businesses,” Tissington said. “But while construction is happening, can’t we work towards ease of parking for our customers and patrons and more communication from developers?”

Ninety-nine King Street developer Percy Wilbur told Brunswick News that he goes through a city liaison to communicate with local businesses. He said he understands what they’re going through. 

“We do our best to accommodate and to keep parking as clear as we can,” he said. “A lot of the problem too is that even though we tell everyone on site to respect neighbours, people will do it anyway, not the contractors, but citizens too, we put up barriers and barricades, and people will still drive and park where they aren’t supposed to – so it’s a difficult undertaking.”

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Declining revenues

Other businesses agreed with Tissington. Corn Crib Natural Foods owner Kelly McCarthy told Brunswick News they’ve had several customers tell her that they did not want to shop uptown anymore, leading her to consider making home deliveries a part of the store’s business plan. Corn Crib manager Danielle Pellerin said their store’s revenue is down around 30 per cent over the last few months. 

“It wasn’t necessarily about the construction, but the road closures, and I kept asking workers when they’d be done, and every week I kept getting the answer of, ‘next week,’ but the following week it was the same answer,” she said. “I tried to park one day in front of our store and I got yelled at by a construction worker telling me not to park there – how is (any business) supposed to survive uptown if we’re always getting customers worried constantly about getting tickets or being towed while they’re shopping at our stores?” 

Urban Shoe Myth owner Shelly DeMerchant told Brunswick News she has had to put up signs in several areas directing customers to her business and telling them the shoe and accessories business is still open, with arrows pointing the way around construction areas.  

DeMerchant guessed her business sales are down between 10-15 per cent, as at the beginning of the summer her business faced city work, and now is across the 99 King development. 

“It all just seems to be one big, long process here, and with sales here that equates to quite a bit,” she said. “I honestly couldn’t be more thrilled that the development is happening, but we need to be able to keep our businesses going until it’s completed.” 

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She said communication is key. 

“I understand that a portion of the street is going to be closed now and then, I know there’ll be disruptions,” she said. “But if we could be made aware it would at least allow us to prepare.” 

As an example, she said, if she had known about disruptions during particular weeks, she could have changed her stock deliveries to coincide with those days. 

Anne McShane, who owns the Feel Good Store and sits on the city’s Planning Advisory Committee, told Brunswick News more attention could have been paid to how all the construction would effect local businesses. 

“If they’re all talking about communicating better, that’s always great, because there’ll be no shortage of developments in the future,” she said. “It’s tough because each group has its own concern, one saying, ‘I’m just trying to sell soap!’ and the other saying, ‘I’m just trying to build this building!,” so it would be nice to have some of the key groups involved talking to each other to try and work this out.” 

The only councillor to respond to the letter was Brent Harris, who sympathized with those businesses involved, but said it’s something that every community deals with during development. 

“This is something that every city goes through and every community has had to come to grips with,” he said. “These are just pressures that a growing city faces, and there’s always room for improvement.” 

City Chief Administrative Officer Brent McGovern told Harris that staff intends on raising the issue again “based on the construction season and challenges” received by staff. He added the letter would “feed into a report to come back from staff in advance of the next construction season.”

Out-of-province solutions

Uptown Saint John’s letter to council includes links to construction mitigation plans in Halifax and Toronto, showing council that other areas have been dealing with the same issue. Toronto’s Transit Expansion Construction Program gives grants of $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 to business improvement association’s that meet eligibility requirements. Halifax’s plan requires aspects of mitigation in the permitting and covers items like parking effects, dust and rodent control, and delivery control.

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