Have your say on Dorval’s master plan
Urban planning document lays out vision for city through to year 2030
The city of Dorval will hold a public consultation Feb. 23 on changes to its master plan, a major urban planning document laying out a vision for the city to the year 2030.
One of the major elements of the new plan is the rezoning of Dorval Ave., the Dorval Gardens shopping mall and the long- shuttered Dorval Ave. movie theatre to allow for mixed commercial and residential redevelopment.
Mario St. Jean, the city’s director of urban planning, says the city is trying to create a win- win situation whereby citizens living in older, established neighbourhoods would see little change in the communities they know and love.
At the same time, however, the city would attract newcomers to newly built residential developments that would take advantage of the eventual completion of the Dorval Interchange and the long planned intermodal transportation hub where AMT commuter trains, STM buses and VIA Rail passenger trains will stop.
“We are putting forward the conditions to take advantage of this facility,” said St. Jean. “We are looking ahead, opening the doors to higher- density development.”
St. Jean said the process began with the adoption of several new bylaws for site planning, zoning and conditional property uses at the Jan. 12 council meeting. Other new bylaws are in the works.
The goal is to create a regulatory environment that will permit medium- density development immediately south of Dorval Circle — up to 80 dwellings per hectare, he said.
Apartment buildings — up to eight storeys on the west side of Dorval Ave. and up to four storeys on the east side of Dorval Ave. — would also be allowed, he said.
As it stands now, St. Jean said, the city’s main gateway is crying out for a makeover.
When the Dorval Gardens shopping mall was opened in the 1960s, it was a state- of- the- art facility and a signature landmark. That is no longer the case, he said.
“The term high- density makes a lot of people nervous,” said St. Jean. “We are taking residents’ concerns into consideration.”
No changes are planned for the former Queen of Angels Academy property or the residential development already approved there, he said.
But with island- wide calls for densification along transportation corridors, the so- called TOD, or transit- oriented development, endorsed by the agglomeration, he said, change is coming.
A reimagined and redeveloped Dorval Ave. could mean bicycle paths, mini- parks and a mix of new housing that would bring the city into the 21st century, said St. Jean.
The public consultation meeting will be held Feb. 23 at 7 p. m. at the Sarto- Desnoyers Community Centre, 1335 Lakeshore Drive. Dorval’s 2015 Sustainable Master Plan can be found at www. ville. dorval. qc. ca.
The term highdensity makes a lot of people nervous, We are taking residents’ concerns into consideration.