N.B. Museum will be transformational, says Saint John mayor

Set to begin construction in the coming months, the New Brunswick Museum project won't just expand the venerable institution in Saint John, it will also upgrade the city's parking and pedestrian infrastructure, with a new snow-ban lot for winters and upgraded surrounding sidewalks.

The former museum building in Saint John's north end will be updated and expanded to house research, exhibition, and community spaces under one roof, while its historical limestone facade will be maintained.

Speaking on Information Morning Saint John, Mayor Donna Reardon said the museum project will be a driver for major changes to the Douglas Avenue neighbourhood.

"There will be money put into improving the crosswalks there. There will be two covered transit stops that will be also provided as well," she said.

"So there's been some commitments there to improve that area."

The Harbour Passage expansion would be off the existing passage trail which runs along Chesley Drive. (Google Maps)

The other upgrades, according to a recent presentation to Saint John council, include turning the Douglas Avenue and Bentley Street crosswalks into "lighted crosswalks," and an extension of the Harbour Passage.

Reardon said she hopes the city will be able to use the museum as "leverage" for more walkability surrounding the area. 

"For the city extending Harbour Passage, if you took the passage all the way up Chesley, you could make that right onto Douglas Avenue," Reardon said.

Museum staff to park off site  

Reardon said that museum staff will have to park off site at the museum's research and storage centre on the west side on Lancaster Avenue. They will be shuttled to the main site on Douglas Avenue.

The parking arrangement is based on a parking study done by the Canadian British Consulting Group, examining the annual number of visitors to the site.

"Between 2010 and 2020 the museum annually had about 45,000 visitors," Reardon said.

The study "also looked at the square footage of the museum, the annual number of visitors, at how visitors come to the museum."

Saint John Mayor Donna Reardon says the development surrounding the museum will introduce big changes to the Douglas Avenue neighbourhood. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)

The result, she said, is that 55 per cent of museum visitors will arrive by personal vehicle, while the rest will come as commuters and pedestrians.

"They could come with school field trips, they could come up off of the cruise ships on a bus," Reardon said.

She said the study used these numbers to make predictions of what the parking requirements should be.

"They looked at what parking is offered on the street right now and that about 50 per cent of the on-street parking is being used," she said.

"So that was part of the equation as well when they looked at all of the factors of what they needed for parking. So what [the museum] committed to for Saint John is that they will off-site their staff 15 to 20 parking spaces."

Concerns over speeding

While Reardon is positive about the project, some city councillors have brought up concerns about the increased traffic the museum will cause on Douglas Avenue, a street already known for speeding drivers.

"Douglas Avenue right now is really treated by many residents as a through-way. When you get off that reversing Falls Bridge, it's a place where people drive quite fast," said Coun. Brent Harris, at council this week.

"There's lots of requests for traffic calming here."

New Brunswick Museum board chair Tracy Clinch said that a traffic study, separate from the parking study, was done by the EXP engineering group to address these concerns.

"There will be some additions to help try to control some of the pedestrian traffic in the area," Clinch said to council.

"We will continue to consult with city and province and residents in order to ensure that we minimize the impact of increased traffic in the area."

Clinch said no additional decisions have been made on traffic calming measures for the Douglas Avenue area surrounding museum.