A map from council documents shows zoning for the proposed Spruce Lake Industrial Park following a council vote in July. Photo: Submitted

By: Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. Source: Telegraph-Journal October 31, 2025 and updated since.

Three citizens opposed to rezoning land for the expansion of Saint John’s Spruce Lake Industrial Park say new legal action is their “only option” to stop the project.

Adam Wilkins, a member of the Save Lorneville community group, told Brunswick News he and two other people have served the City of Saint John with an application for judicial review regarding council’s decision to approve rezoning and municipal plan amendments for a 510-hectare parcel of land adjacent to King William Road.

The city is in talks to acquire the land from the province to expand the Spruce Lake Industrial Park in an effort to create development-ready properties and encourage industrial growth.

Brunswick News viewed the application, which was filed with Saint John Court of King’s Bench in October. Wilkins, Chris Watson and Shayne Galbraith, as applicants, are asking a judge to overturn council’s decision, arguing councillors breached procedural fairness by failing to approach it with an “open mind,” and that it contravened parts of the city’s municipal plan.

“It was our experience, and it was quite apparent, that this was a decision that was already done before going through the actual process,” Wilkins said last month, adding, “This is the only option we had to continue to push back from a legal perspective.”

The allegations in the application have not been tested in court. The City of Saint John has declined comment, according to spokesperson Sarah Peiser, saying the matter is before the courts.

Year-long process

The vote to approve rezoning in July came as part of a year-long process that began in June 2024, with a public hearing postponed in October to establish a series of task force meetings last winter, before public hearings in May and June 2025.

About 120 residents spoke against the project during the public hearings. Their concerns included loss of wetlands, environmental effects, as well as potential flooding and impacts on groundwater wells.

The city’s rationale for the proposal includes a “critical shortage of development-ready industrial lands” in Saint John. At the public hearings, Spruce Lake Industrial Park general manager Ian MacKinnon said his organization had received expressions of interest on possible projects including a data centre and a green manufacturing project, which could generate millions in tax revenue annually.

(Earlier this month, proponents of a data centre in the industrial park held a public meeting during which they disclosed the centre would generate 190 MW of its own power while using an additional 190 MW from the NB Power grid.)

Provincial approval

A provincial environmental impact assessment review for the project to clear “pad-ready” land on part of the site wrapped up in August, when the province approved the expansion of the industrial park with 23 conditions, including a requirement to complete a stormwater management plan, monitoring plans for groundwater, surface water and wetlands, and an environmental management plan.

The notice of application for judicial review details the city and province’s steps in developing the project, meetings of the task force committee, and comments from councillors and Mayor Donna Reardon about the project both in media and to residents.

The applicants argue these is evidence that some councillors had a “closed mind” regarding the project and that failing to proceed with an open mind is a breach of procedural fairness.

Wilkins told Brunswick News the city “didn’t fairly balance concerns” brought up at the public hearings or make changes, and said there was a “quite clear bias towards approving the project.”

When asked about the decision to postpone the initial public hearing and assemble the task force, Wilkins, who had been the co-chair of the task force, said that questions wouldn’t be answered or promises would change week to week, adding that “every step of the way, it was not giving answers, not respecting the community.”

He said this differs from the normal course of how a municipality would proceed with a project because of the “sheer enormity” of the project area and developments regarding wetlands and old growth trees in the area.

The application alleges that the plan “will lead to the destruction of vast amounts of wetlands, old growth and mature forest, and remove climate resilience benefits,” and suggests that the expansion is “incompatible with both the character of the neighbourhood and the broader land objectives of the city.”

This story from Brunswick News was written by local journalism initiative reporter Andrew Bates with additional updates from Warktimes.

To read CBC coverage of provincial approval for expansion of the Spruce Lake Industrial Park, click here.

For CBC coverage of the public meeting on November 5th by proponents of a data centre in the expanded industrial park, click here.

For the Warktimes story on a possible link between the data centre near Lorneville and the gas/diesel plant near Centre Village, click here.