Business View Civil and Municipal | April 2021

81 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL APRIL 2021 Yacht Club, established in 1907, has most of the facilities needed to be a successful sailing and powerboating club. There’s also the Kennebecasis Paddling Centre, a sprint canoe- kayak racing club that’s been developing athletes on both the national and international stages since 1982. And at the heart of the town is the Rothesay Common, a well-known community space often used as a social and cultural center for festivals, community events, and various outdoor activities. According to Grant, “It’s a very old area, acquired by the town in the 1930s. Mostly a large green space, but with the recent addition of a refrigerated skating rink, which is extremely popular in the winter and in summer doubles as a basketball court.” Named one of the safest places to live in Canada by MacLean’s Magazine in 2018, Rothesay is as family-friendly and community-focused as it gets. “Our population, which sits at about 12,000, has been relatively stable and we’re poised for growth,” shares the Mayor. “Our housing has ROTHESAY , NEW BRUNSWI CK largely been single-family dwellings, some of them very large properties, but the population is changing. We have seniors. We have low-income folks. The other thing that’s happening is the growth of the single-person household. With those factors in mind, we’ve been diversifying our housing over the past five years. We had about 700 older apartments in town, but we’ve added newer, more modern-looking apartments right in the center of town. Thirty-five units over the last two years, and a 48-unit condo development, which is just a block away from Town Hall.” The Town Council has just approved a 55-lot subdivision for single-family homes, which they’re hoping will attract some younger families. On the flip side, Rothesay is also a New Brunswick-designated Age-Friendly Community. “We have an Age-Friendly Community Centre, supported by the town of Rothesay,” says Grant. “We call it the Rothesay Hive. We conduct all kinds of programming there, but the most