Dear City of St. John's, Members of City Council, Planning Authorities, and Fellow Residents,

I am writing not only as a resident, but as someone who made a promise to Dr. Allderdice before she passed — a promise to help protect her land.
Limeville is not vacant land. It is not an empty lot awaiting usefulness. It is a living landscape — a sanctuary of flowers, trees, and intention. Every path, every bloom, every mature tree standing at the bottom of Queen’s Battery was placed there by a gentle and visionary soul who believed beauty belonged in this city.
What is being proposed is not simply development. It is erasure.

This property sits beneath Queen’s Battery — a site woven into the historical fabric of St. John’s. The land carries memory. It carries the quiet labor of decades. It carries ecological richness that cannot be recreated once it is bulldozed. You cannot replace mature trees with saplings and call it balance. You cannot remove a cultivated urban forest and claim progress.

The community is devastated. Not mildly concerned — devastated. Neighbors are grieving in advance of something that has not yet happened but feels inevitable. That should matter.

We are told this development will contribute to housing. But these are luxury homes. They will not meaningfully address the housing crisis. They will not shelter those struggling. They will not ease rental pressure. They will not provide affordability. What they will do is permanently alter the character of The Battery and eliminate one of the last remaining green sanctuaries in the downtown core.
When we normalize the destruction of historically and ecologically significant spaces for projects that do not serve urgent public need, we set a precedent. And that precedent becomes the beginning of the end — the slow surrender of every irreplaceable place to short-term gain.

This is not anti-development. This is pro-wisdom.

There are ways to build without erasing history. There are ways to address housing without sacrificing sacred green space. There are ways to consult a community before breaking its heart.

We are asking for a pause.
We are asking for reconsideration.
We are asking for meaningful dialogue.
We are asking for preservation options to be explored before it is too late.
Once this land is cleared, there is no undoing it.

Please choose to be remembered as the council that protected a living piece of St. John’s history — not the one that allowed it to disappear.

PLEASE NOTE - It was brought to my attention people have been donating to change.org, please note these donation are contributed  to help promote this cause on change.org, these are not donated to the organizers of this petition to be used locally for the cause.  thank you 

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Respectfully, please share this far and wide