A small portion of Saint John may soon become part of the community of Fundy-St. Martins.
The village is looking to annex just under five square kilometres of the eastern edge of the city.
Andrew Fry, the village’s CAO, said the process began when they realized their fire hall was within city limits.
“It is our asset, so it was kind of weird that it was in a different community,” Fry said in an interview with our newsroom.
“Then we looked at that community of Simonds and the kind of natural layout of the land boundary that would make sense.”
Around 75 properties and 100 residents would be impacted by the proposed change, according to a report by the village.
Fry said there have been no major concerns expressed by residents they have talked to about the annexation.
“I think the general consensus is from residents in the area that they thought they were probably part of Fundy-St. Martins to some extent anyway,” he said.
“For most of them, it doesn’t really disrupt any services for them, so people were generally supportive of the change and of becoming more aligned with the village.”
No immediate changes are expected for services such as waste collection, road maintenance and emergency services, though council may look at reviewing the fire and policing boundaries.
In addition, residents living in the annexed areas would see their property tax rate fall by nearly 47 cents per $100 of assessed value, according to the report.
Residents now have until June 6 to submit their feedback on the proposal to the Local Governance Commission of New Brunswick.
After that, the commission will make a recommendation to the local government minister on whether to proceed with the boundary change.
