St. John’s city council’s former lead on housing does not appear to be overly concerned about increased traffic resulting from a massive housing development in the city’s east end.

Deputy Mayor Ron Ellsworth attended an open house hosted by the Canada Lands Company at the Legion on the Boulevard yesterday.

The company’s new development will see 1,300 units added to the Pleasantville neighbourhood, and includes a commitment to affordable housing, green space, and improved accessibility.

Another major development by KMK Capital is slated for the former Bally Haly property which will see another 1,200 units built.

Residents ‘shouldn’t be afraid of change’ says Deputy Mayor

Ellsworth was asked about what the added development will mean for city infrastructure and traffic. His response was that residents “shouldn’t be afraid of change.”

“We’re a little bit spoiled, aren’t we? We think here in St. John’s traffic is tight because it takes you 10 minutes to get from Clovelly to the Village Mall, right?” he remarked when asked about traffic concerns.

“We need to understand that we have a changing city, we have a growing city, but many years ago the city leaned into the idea of walkability. Hopefully out of a lot of this we get a mindset change where you don’t need to get your car every day to go to work, go to the store, bring your kids to daycare, and then that will help with the traffic also.”

Senior director of real estate with Canada Lands Atlantic, Christopher Sweetnam Holmes, says the development will include various types of homes to help address the housing crisis.

“You’re going to see a big community park at the centre. You’re going to see row housing, like townhouse type housing, that fronts along the park,”

“You’re going to have two and three storey flats where you have an apartment upstairs, an apartment downstairs. Then you’re going to have three and six storey apartment buildings that are going to be scattered around the project too. And then there’s going to be a number of walking paths.”