Do you find it hard to imagine the structure that may dominate the Signal Hill skyline by 2007? "The Rock" condominium hotel.

We do, too. The only thing we know about it is the developer's "artist's sketch" (above right) submitted to the City that was published in the paper. It's pretty fuzzy. Apparently the sketch is just about all that city councillors and city staff know about it, too. Amongst the many details it does not reveal is what the structure will look like in relation to everything else on Signal Hill. But it was enough for St. John's City Council on January 3rd, 2006 to overrule their own city planning staff and give the green light to the California-based developer,

Problem is, it violates their own building regulations. So they've exempted it from those regulations because the American developer asked them to. That sets a dangerous precedent: It could put all of Signal Hill and the Battery up for grabs, development-wise.

On Jan 3/06 they voted to exempt "THE ROCK" from the Signal Hill/Battery Area development regulations. That exemption still stands. They were set to also exempt it from the wider city development rebulations on Jan 23/06, but faced with a 1400 signature petition from voters they postponed that decision for the time being. See the news story

UPDATES:
Jan 24/06
Feb 1/06

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Tell your councillor and mayor what you think about it. Click here for councillors' contact numbers.

You may like to sign the online petition or comment on our blog

The award-winning architect Robert Mellin, who is not associated with the developer's project, has generated a drawing of what the proposed THE ROCK development will actually look like in relation to current structures on Signal Hill. Robert Mellin is a Newfoundland-based architect and associate professor of architecture at McGill University who chairs the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador. His rendering of the structure has been made to scale based on the development details that have been made public, and...This is It:

At the Jan 16/06 City Council meeting, councillor Shannie Duff stated that the proposed structure would be 2.5 times larger than The Rooms, 60,000 square feet larger than Atlantic Place, and 3.5 times larger than some of the largest big-box retail stores on the city's outskirts. She estimated it would be 4 times the size of the current hotel.