YMCA ready to start work on after-school expansion

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A green light from Saint John’s planning committee for the YMCA’s Glenn Carpenter Centre expansion helps the push to get it done this year, according to CEO Shilo Boucher.

A rezoning application as part of the YMCA of Southwestern New Brunswick‘s $3 million expansion at Ashburn Lake got the planning advisory committee’s support at its meeting Tuesday. The YMCA also got temporary approval to begin some construction work at the site.

The YMCA is looking to build a year-round building to offer after-school child care at the community centre, which currently offers summer camp programming.

Boucher said the expansion is planned to add net 90 new after-school spaces for kids 5-12. Right now there are “huge waitlists” both in the Millidgeville location and the regional location, she said.

“It’s really important to us that we meet the need of parents and fill the gap that currently exists in the after-school program space, but also in outdoor education,” she said. “To us it’s really about how fast we can drive some really positive impacts for the families that we serve.”

The 86-hectare site currently includes the lodge building, two accessory buildings and parking spaces, and the YMCA is looking to build a 745-square-metre building for an outdoor education centre, according to a staff report. The rest of the site is wooded, and includes Ashburn Lake, according to the report.

The land is currently zoned as rural and the application is to change it to major community facility, city planner Mark Reade told the meeting.

Reade said that at the time the current building was built, a community centre was allowed as part of rural zoning, but now it needs to be updated to make sure the zoning matches the use.

Tim Jones, whose business Tir na nog Forest School is across Foster Thurston Drive, noted that the YMCA’s strategic plan calls for 5,000 attendees annually, and said the city needs to consider impacts on traffic with the additional people coming to the site, as well as buses.

Committee member Anne McShane asked if future development would need more rezoning and Reade said that the current rezoning gives the developer flexibility. Reade added that 5,000 annually is “not a lot” for that particular road.

Boucher told the meeting they work with two schools currently, and the site has a turnaround for buses. She said the YMCA only had plans around renovation and “outdoor recreation” at the site.

A nearby property owner, John Donovan, also spoke to the meeting, saying he’d be willing to discuss a sale if it would be of any help.

Vice-chair Matthew DaLuz said he is “incredibly supportive” of the YMCA’s expansion and added recreational opportunities in the city.

“We’re happy to see additional daycare and childcare spaces and additional recreational opportunities here in what I think has been an underserved area in the city so far,” DaLuz said.

Boucher told Brunswick News the goal is to open the building in 2024 so they can start programming and welcome participants in 2025.

“The project is going well, we have the building fully designed and we’ve issued our first tender,” Boucher told Brunswick News Wednesday. “So the news last night is really great for us, because it’ll allow us to start the groundwork, which we’re excited about.”

The YMCA needs $1.2 million in fundraising for the project, with $495,000 in funding announced by the province last September and the rest coming from the Y. That’s part of an overall fundraising goal of $2 million for 2024, which was announced last month.

“We’re asking for those who are interested in the project to come out and donate,” she said. “We’re working with lots of partners and people who are really passionate about outdoor education who are stepping forward … and our goal is to get that done by the end of the year.”

The rezoning process now heads to council and is set to continue through April, Boucher said.