Riverview's Secondary Plan Would Leave Half of Bridgedale-Gunningsville Undeveloped

Riverview is planning the last large piece of undeveloped land inside its boundaries, and the draft plan does something most growth plans do not. It proposes leaving half of it alone.

The Bridgedale-Gunningsville-Robertson area sits in the eastern part of town, and the Town of Riverview describes it as almost completely undeveloped. It is now the subject of a formal secondary plan, a detailed framework that sets out what can be built where before development proceeds at scale. The draft scenario put to residents proposes 36% of the area as Open Space and Conservation and a further 14% as Parks and Recreation. Half the plan area is designated for development. The other half is not.

For anyone who owns property in Riverview, that split is the number that matters, and it is worth understanding why.

What the draft plan actually proposes

A secondary plan sits beneath a municipality's broader municipal plan. Where the municipal plan sets direction for the whole town, a secondary plan zooms in on one area and settles the details: where housing goes, at what density, how streets connect, where parks and commercial space sit, and which land is protected.

Riverview's draft concentrates density rather than spreading it. The highest-density housing and a commercial and mixed-use hub are proposed at the intersection of Gunningsville and Bridgedale Boulevards, with density stepping down as it approaches existing neighbourhoods. Mill Creek Nature Park is treated as a focal point, with trails built using low-impact methods such as elevated boardwalks and permeable surfacing rather than conventional paving.

That is a deliberate structure. Putting the density at one node and protecting the edges is what lets a town add housing without changing the character of the streets people already live on. It is also, for what it is worth, what residents asked for. The engagement sessions produced consistent themes: protect the wetlands and parkland, offer more housing options, and build a complete community with safe and convenient connections.

The infrastructure is already in the ground

This is the part that separates Bridgedale-Gunningsville-Robertson from a speculative development zone.

In the Town's own words, it has already invested in road, water and sewer infrastructure along Gunningsville and Bridgedale Boulevards. The servicing is built. That removes the single largest cost and timing barrier that normally sits between a plan being approved and a shovel going in the ground, and it means construction timelines here should run shorter than comparable greenfield sites elsewhere in Greater Moncton.

When a municipality spends on underground infrastructure before a single house exists, it has already made its decision. The plan is not the commitment. The pipe is.

Where the plan stands right now

Riverview adopted a new Municipal Plan and Zoning By-Law in November 2025, following more than eighteen months of consultation. That plan designated this area as a secondary planning area, meaning a detailed planning exercise had to happen before development could proceed. The Town retained UPLAND Planning and Design to run it.

Two rounds of public engagement have been completed. The first ran in December 2025 as virtual and in-person visioning sessions. The second presented the draft scenario in late April 2026, and submissions closed on 18 May 2026. On 13 July 2026, UPLAND presented a "What We Heard" report to Council, and Council was told the next step is a public hearing on the proposed plan.

As of early September 2026, that public hearing has not been scheduled, and the plan has not been adopted. The project's published schedule had finalization and adoption running through July 2026, so the process is taking longer than first mapped out. That is not unusual for a plan covering this much land, and it does mean anyone waiting on certainty should watch for the hearing notice rather than assume the framework is settled.

The rest of what Riverview is spending

The secondary plan is not happening in isolation. Riverview's 2026 capital budget totals $43.5 million, of which $34.7 million goes to completing the Riverview Recreation Complex, a project of more than $60 million that is now expected to open to the public in July 2027.

Beyond the complex, the budget funds roughly $5 million of road and utility work across town, including $2.13 million to rebuild Vernon and Hiltz Avenues with water and sewer components, $1.05 million in watermain renewals on Biggs Drive and Karolie Road, and $1.9 million to replace sewer on Cleveland Avenue.

Separately, Shannex began construction in April 2026 on a 60-bed long-term care home at its Parkland Riverview campus, with completion expected in fall 2028. It is one of four new 60-bed homes being built across New Brunswick, supported by a $993 million investment in the province's 2026-27 budget for long-term care.

None of that is the secondary plan. All of it is the same underlying pattern, which is a town spending on the things that make housing worth more over time rather than waiting for demand to force its hand. Riverview's construction activity over the past two years has followed the same logic.

What it means if you own in Riverview

If you own near the corridor, the conservation share is a feature, not a loss. Protected open space and parkland next to a neighbourhood is one of the more durable value supports in residential real estate, because unlike a view or a quiet street it cannot be built out later by someone else. A plan that fixes half the area as open space is fixing what your property looks out at.

If you own elsewhere in town, the effect is slower and broader. New housing at the Gunningsville and Bridgedale node adds supply, and supply moderates price growth. What offsets it is that the same plan adds the amenity base, and Riverview is delivering a $60 million recreation facility and a new long-term care home in the same window. Amenity density is one of the stronger predictors of where residential values hold up.

If you are thinking about selling acreage or a larger lot in eastern Riverview, the sequence to watch is the public hearing and then adoption. Land values in a designated growth area tend to move as planning risk comes off, not when construction starts. The gap between "designated" and "adopted" is where that repricing happens.

One caution worth stating plainly. Parcels in this area have been marketed with specific unit-yield estimates attached. Those are seller and broker projections, not Town-approved capacity, and the plan that will govern them is still before Council. Treat any unit count you see in a listing as a proposal until the plan is adopted.

What to watch next

Three things, in order. The public hearing notice, which is the first hard date this process has had since May. The final plan document, which will show whether the 36% conservation and 14% parks split survived into the adopted version. Then the first development applications, which is when the timeline stops being a planning exercise and starts being houses.

Riverview is not the only part of Greater Moncton where road capacity is deciding what gets built. The Dieppe Boulevard expansion is doing the same work on the other side of the river, and the region's broader new construction pipeline shows how much of the coming supply depends on servicing that is already funded.

Sources: Town of Riverview secondary plan materials and council highlights, the UPLAND Planning and Design draft scenario presentation of April 2026, the Town of Riverview 2026 budget release, and Government of New Brunswick announcements on long-term care. Figures reflect the draft plan as presented for public engagement. The plan had not been adopted as of 8 September 2026.