Opposition backs plan for Royalmount mega mall
The main opposition party at Montreal City Hall is coming out in favour of the Royalmount mega mall in the Town of Mount Royal.
“We’re looking at a $2-billion private investment in Montreal, I think that bodes very well for the economic situation in Montreal, it shows that private interests are ready to invest in the long-term,” said Lionel Perez, the leader of Ensemble Montreal.
While the party — and previous administration that it led — has raised concerns about the impact of the project on traffic and congestion, Perez said there are positive signs.
“Those are issues that the promoter has indicated he is willing to work on,” Perez said.
But the question of whether the City of Montreal — through the agglomeration council — has final say on the project remains an open question.
While former mayor Denis Coderre said it did, it may be more complicated than that.
Municipalities like the Town of Mount Royal have exclusive jurisdiction over zoning, but their zoning decisions must respect the agglomeration’s master plan, Perezsaid.
“I’ve heard the promoter say that the decision is really within the Town of Mount Royal,” he said. However, he added that he hadn’t seen the documentation attesting to that yet.
T.M.R. Mayor Philippe Roy, who supports the project, has agreed with the developer’s position.
Ultimately, the question of whether the agglomeration council, which is controlled by Montreal’s administration, will attempt to block the project will be up to Valérie Plante.
“That’s something that the mayor’s office will be able to, and should, address,” Perez said.
Robert Beaudry, the member of Montreal’s executive committee responsible for economic and commercial development, wouldn’t say whether he believes the agglomeration council has the power to block it.
However, he said municipalities on the Island of Montreal should consult each other on projects like this.
“The concerns of the agglomeration should be heard,” he said.
So far, the current administration hasn’t taken a position on the project.
“It’s something we’re watching, we’re being proactive, we’re in contact with the developer,” Beaudry said, adding that discussions are going well.
“Our main concern is the impact on traffic,” Beaudry said. He’s worried the project will lead to increased congestion on an already saturated network.
The administration’s is also concerned about the impact on retailers in other parts of the city.
Perez said the current administration had a different tone when they were in opposition.
“In the past, they said they would do everything they could to block the project, they ’re now saying ‘we have concerns,’ so the question is why has their attitude and position seemingly changed on that point,” he said. “We were always in favour, in principle, of this project because of the economic potential.”
In early 2015, then-mayor Coderre expressed on Twitter his skepticism about the project’s economic impact.
His administration referred the plan to both city council and agglomeration council committees for study and Coderre said he was waiting for the reports before taking a position on the project.
Destination Centre-ville, the downtown merchants’ association, would like to see the city oppose the project, said its executive director André Poulin.
However, he said, the City of Montreal might not have the power to do that, even through the agglomeration.
His group worries the development will take business from downtown retailers.
“We are very concerned” Poulin said, “because there’s really no need for it.”
Carbonleo, the developer behind the Royalmount project, has said it expects the mall to draw customers from retail developments in Laval and on the South Shore.
The fact that Carbonleo is investing in a hotel and residential development attached to the Ogilvy store in downtown Montreal is a good sign, Perez said.
Obviously it demonstrates that he believes that they can coexist and there’s the clientele and the customer base to satisfy all those different projects” he said.
“…We have to realize that in a free-market economy, we have to let the players adjust and let those decisions play out,” Perez said.