Apartments to offer vast green space, accessible housing Vaudreuil-Dorion’s complex to meet needs of families, wheelchair users
A four-building multi-family rental housing project that will include wheelchair-accessible units and a significant proportion of green space is moving ahead in Vaudreuil-Dorion. The new 36-unit rental complex on Valois St. will include three buildings with eight units each, as well as one with 12 units, including six adapted units for people with reduced mobility. According to Vaudreuil-Dorion director of urban planning Olivier Van Neste, the project is an important one for the city, as there is a need for both family oriented rental apartments and wheelchairaccessible housing in the area. He noted that a bylaw will be proposed to council soon that would require promoters to incorporate more accessible housing units in new housing projects. Van Neste said the design of the buildings, created by Dimension 3 Architecture, is better than expected for a typical rental building, incorporating stone and noble materials. Most units in the complex will be two or three bedrooms, he said. The location of the complex is in an area marked for revitalization, near a planned pedestrian crossing at Harwood Blvd. that is intended to link the residential neighbourhood to the nearby Dorion commercial district, Van Neste said. “We’re happy to see densification on this side because we’re trying to provide access to the other sectors that we’re trying to reinvigorate,” he said. A significant portion of the site, about 42 per cent (3,700 square metres), is earmarked for green space. Over 50 medium to large trees are also to be planted on the site. The building is the first in Vaudreuil-Dorion to be approved under a new bylaw adopted last year that permits the city to approve multiple variances in a single integrated project, rather than modifying bylaws one at a time. Construction is to begin in late summer, and is expected to be complete by the spring of 2020.