St. John’s councillors are torn over a proposed apartment building for the extreme east end of the city.
Newco Metal and Recycling wants to put up the 12-unit, three-storey structure to house its employees next door.
At yesterday’s committee of the whole meeting, councillors hungry for housing liked everything about the plan—except the location.
The area on Robin Hood Bay Road is as industrial as it gets, including scrap yards and the province’s largest dump, and would need the province to sign off on rezoning.
City staff recommended rejecting the plan, and a majority of council, including Sandy Hickman, reluctantly agreed.
“I’m conflicted on this one. It’s laudable and makes a lot of sense for the proponent to have accessible housing for employees; it’s a great idea,” said Hickman. “It’s just unfortunate that they’re that close to the dump, or landfill. It makes sense to me to try to keep housing out of that area. It’s just opening up the door for problems, there’s no question about that.”
The application must still go before a regular meeting of council for final approval or rejection.