Donna McGuire’s backyard has been a refuge for her and her husband since they purchased their home, located near the north end of McLaughlin Drive, in 2007.
She said the sounds of the birds coming from the woods bordering on her property, as well as the peace and quiet, have been beneficial to her and her husband’s health.
In mid-December 2023, she and her neighbours received a notice from the city, informing them council would be voting on possibly rezoning an empty lot near their home to allow for the construction of townhouses and apartment buildings.
“This is a really quiet residential neighbourhood where we all take really good care of our homes,” McGuire said.
“To have 512 units in that very small parcel of land back there and right in our backyard is just not conducive to living in a subdivision.”
The proposal from ATMJ Properties includes the construction of six-storey apartment buildings, which McGuire said creates privacy concerns for her and her neighbours.
She said the increased density also created concerns for noise and traffic, as well as possible impacts on property values, causing her to consider selling her home.
She’s launched a petition against the rezoning that has amassed more than 300 signatures.
She and her neighbours spoke to council at length on Monday evening about their objections to the rezoning.
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“We have a lot of population growth, we have a huge demand for housing,” Moncton’s director of planning and development Bill Budd said in response to the pushback.
He said there would be a traffic study completed to look at traffic concerns, and the city could work with the developer, ATMJ Properties, to mitigate the noise and disturbances from construction.
Global News reached out to ATMJ Properties on Tuesday and did not hear back.
“This is not the first and won’t be the last where growth has an impact on people’s backyards,” Coun. Daniel Bourgeois said at the council meeting.
“Wherever we would approve a project like this, we would have a neighbourhood impacted…. I understand the concern of the citizens but we have to look at … not only the interests of the whole city, not just the neighbourhood, but also on a long-term perspective, this project seems very interesting.”
McGuire said Tuesday that “putting high density in a backyard like this and interrupting the lives of people who live here … I just know that this is not the solution.”
She noted that she would be open to single-family homes or duplexes being built in the area.
Council ultimately decided to revisit the issue on Feb. 20.
Tobin LeBlanc Haley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick and a founding member of the NB Coalition for Tenants Rights, said high-density housing, and especially affordable housing, was desperately needed in Moncton.
“People need a place to live. Moncton is an urban population centre and it’s a space where the population is growing,” she said on Tuesday.
LeBlanc Haley said municipalities need to make some decisions in spite of pushback to higher density in areas that have typically had low density in order to grow.
“People may have a particular imagined idea of what it’s going to be like, and you can’t make policy on what people imagine it’s going to be,” she said.
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