Councillor proposes buying church green space
Motion isn’t well thought out, Copeman says
Councillor Peter McQueen wants Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Damede-Grâce to purchase church green space so the borough can create mini parks for the public to enjoy while helping to preserve heritage sites.
McQueen is tabling a motion that, going to vote on May 1, calls on the borough to use park fees for this purpose. These fees are collected from large-scale developments such as the McGill University Health Centre and Shriners complex on the Glen site in southeastern N.D.G. In that case, fees collected surpassed $1.6 million, according to the motion.
In McQueen’s proposal, backed by his fellow Projet Montréal councillor Magda Popeanu, the aim is to calculate a “reasonable price” for the land based on the municipal evaluation of the property and then make an offer.
That lump sum could potentially help religious organizations maintain operations in the church.
The motion’s first target is the nearly 100-year-old Trinity Memorial Church, which has a considerable amount of green space at the corner of Sherbrooke St. and Marlowe Ave.
“This motion has implications throughout Côte-des-Neiges– N.D.G.,” said McQueen, citing religious facilities on Côte-des-Neiges Rd. that also have park-sized land integrated into the property, such as St. Kevin at Dupuis Ave. and Nôtre-Dame-des-Neiges at Lacombe Ave.
“Throughout the city, people are interested in this motion. People in my party read this and they are now watching. This could be an interesting thing to help a number of churches.”
Calling some of the facts within the motion wrong, borough mayor Russell Copeman said he will not be supporting it as written.
Southeastern N.D.G. could use more green space, he said, but there may be more opportunities in the future with the upcoming reconfiguration of public infrastructure around the hospital.
“This is complete and utter improvisation,” said Copeman, noting it is an election year.
“From month to month it would seem as though Mr. McQueen feels compelled to table motions, but, frankly, they’re not properly written. They’re not properly thought out.”
Malaka Ackaoui, an urban planner and landscape architect who lives near Trinity, said she wants to see all the green space surrounding the church protected. With zero parks between Girouard Ave. and the Westmount border, Ackaoui said, all the grass and vegetation around the building should be preserved.
After sharing the motion with her fellow members of the Vendôme Village Association, JoAnne Wemmers said: “While we are glad that our elected representative has heard our repeated requests for green space in Vendôme Village, we are disappointed that there was never any discussion with the residents about how this might best be approached.”
Instead, she said, the group would like to see the empty lot at the corner of de Maisonneuve Blvd. and Claremont Ave. preserved as a green space.
The group fought to prevent the development of a supermarket/ senior residence on that site last year, and the mostly paved property remains overgrown with several mature trees and vegetation.
Either way, the owner of Trinity says he just bought the property two weeks ago and is not looking to sell the green space.
“It’s all one property, so I’m not even sure if they can buy it,” said Angelo Pasto, owner of Stanford Properties Group Inc. “It’s like somebody wanting to buy your front lawn.”
Pasto, who has developed properties for a quarter century, said his company has a 10-year history of building commercial and residential projects throughout the Montreal region, including work on historic buildings in the Old Port.
“We try to respect the integrity of the heritage building as much as we can,” he said.
There are no immediate plans for Trinity, Pasto explained, and he is not in a rush to develop the site.
The first step, he said, is to help the NDG Food Depot find a new home, as the non-profit organization’s lease expires on June 30. The building is in bad shape for such a busy organization, which offers a wide range of food-oriented services, including freshcooked meals, but has to deal with an inadequate kitchen, he said.
He will send inspectors in to ensure the building is safe and up to code for the usage, he added.
“We’re going to give them an extension so they can try to find a property somewhere,” Pasto said. “Secondly, we are going to sit down with the city to see what we can do with the property.”
As for the depot, the hunt for new headquarters is not an easy process in the increasingly dense N.D.G. area.
For the last four years, depot leaders have searched high and low, willing to pay market value for a property or even build a new facility should space become available.
Executive director Daniel Rotman said he has already met with Stanford Properties Group and “we expect to extend our lease until the end of the year with the new owners, which will give us enough time to find a new and permanent home for the depot.”