By Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Tyler Waugh
Mount Pearl’s plans for residential growth along Park Avenue got a shot in the arm last week with $7 million in federal funding for infrastructure to boost capacity in the area.
The funding, announced September 16, helps offset the $17 million project that includes upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure, sidewalks and paving on Park between Dunn’s Lane and Stapleton Road.
Mayor Dave Aker said the work will not only provide more reliable services for existing residents but also support more housing. He said there are four areas with potential for development, including the old school site, the old pool site, an old hotel site and even, he added, where the Park Place Community Centre currently sits.
“As we complete our new community centre this centre here will be taken down and likely the City in the coming months, perhaps within a year, will have an opportunity to put this out for proposals to redevelop,” Aker said. “And we’re thinking density; we may as well be honest at the end of the day. There’s so much traffic on Park Avenue now because of the Team Gushue Highway that once the highway opens up this year, we are going to see traffic soften a little bit. We really believe we have capacity on Park Avenue to move people in and out, whether it’s for employment purposes or whether it’s to live here in the city of Mount Pearl.”
Aker said while underground infrastructure upgrades will help improve capacity for more housing, the new pavement that will come afterwards will be the first since the road was repaved back around 2009.
Aker said there will be traffic disruptions during construction, but that is a case of short-term pain for long-term gain that residents will understand.
“Even though today is not about wear and tear, Park Avenue is really showing its age,” said the mayor.
Design work is set to take place over the course of the fall and winter and a tender will go out in late winter or spring next year with work potentially starting in the summer of 2027.
“We are also considering some work up in the Wyatt Boulevard area and we are working with the provincial government on Jackman Drive and other parts of the city,” Aker said.
Cape Spear-Mount Pearl-Paradise MP Tom Osborne said the $7 million represents significant infrastructure investment for the future.
“It also gives us the capacity to build more homes, which are desperately needed, not only in Mount Pearl, but in Newfoundland and Labrador and across the country,” Osborne said.
Mount Pearl council approved at its September 22 meeting an application for six units within three row houses at 171 Park Avenue. The proposal had been subject to a public briefing session in early September where residents expressed concerns, not so much about that particular project, but the broader increase in housing density along Park Avenue.
“They expressed concerns about the cumulative impacts of these developments,” said Deputy Mayor Jim Locke, explaining their worry that the growth will create traffic and road safety problems. “Their point was the City could be introducing 100-plus units in a relatively compact geographical area.”
The City had also considered earlier this summer a proposal for a four-storey, 55-unit apartment building at the old municipal pool site at 11 Stapleton Avenue.