City to consult public on urban plan overhaul
Montreal plans to conduct a “vast” public consultation next year to overhaul the city’s urban plan, city executive committee member Russell Copeman announced on Wednesday.
Copeman made the declaration during the public portion of the committee’s weekly meeting as it voted to send the urban plan — essentially the blueprint for Montreal’s long-term development — to public hearings this fall for a partial revision.
If it sounds technical, it’s because the partial revision is a legal requirement under the city charter to make the 11-year old urban plan compatible with an island-wide land-use plan that was adopted by the Coderre administration in January and that covers the demerged suburbs and the city.
After that, a renewal of the city’s urban plan is due because the last one dates back to 2004. Montreal adopted its first urban plan, or master plan, in 1992.
The overhaul of the city’s urban plan will only begin next year, Copeman said, adding “there will be vast public consultations by the Office de la consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM).”
The OCPM is an independent body composed of professionals and is the tool favoured by heritage and planning advocates for the city to evaluate rezoning requests for major development projects precisely because it’s independent and credible.
Heritage Montreal program director Dinu Bumbaru said he’s pleased to hear the update of the urban plan will be handled by the OCPM. However, he added that he wonders at the same time whether the future vision for development in Montreal is being dictated by the new island-wide land-use plan and by such piecemeal decisions as Ville-Marie borough’s scheduled approval on Sept. 9 of a developer’s plan to demolish part of the Maison Alcan complex on Sherbrooke St. W. and build a 30-storey tower that exceeds current height limits in the sector.
“You want to have the high level of quality that you get with the OCPM throughout the chain of decisions,” Bumbaru said, noting that the borough held a required public assembly on the project a day after the St-Jean-Baptiste provincial holiday and opened a register that was required to allow opponents to force a referendum on the project during the height of the summer vacation period. The borough did not send the project to the OCPM.
In fact, architect Phyllis Lambert, founder of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, criticized Coderre this week for allowing “willy-nilly” development, including the proposal for the Maison Alcan complex and residential construction on natural space in Pierrefonds, without an overall plan.
Even the island-wide land-use plan wasn’t submitted to the OCPM, Bumbaru said. An ad hoc committee of municipal politicians held public hearings on that important planning document, which determines such things as where new residential construction is to be permitted and which of the island’s last remaining green spaces are to be preserved.
“Should we have such important instruments for the development of the city only handled by an assemblage of politicians and their particular interests?” Bumbaru asked.
Coincidentally, the partial adjustment of the city’s urban plan this fall, to harmonize it with the island-wide land-use plan, will be submitted to the OCPM, as required by the city charter, he said.
“Now we’re going to have a quality consultative process for adjustments to the urban plan following a land-use plan that was done by an awkward process run by politicians,” Bumbaru said.
The OCPM should be the required body to consult the public and make recommendations on anything related to the urban plan, Bumbaru said. He also suggested the principle be entrenched when and if the Quebec government grants Coderre’s wish to grant Montreal the status of metropolis. As well, the city ought to have an oversight body for urban planning, he said.
“We have an inspector general in Montreal for contracts and bidding, but we have no inspector general for the quality of planning,” Bumbaru said.
In other news, the executive committee approved a bylaw at its meeting on Wednesday to borrow $5 million to renovate Montreal city hall.
A civil service report with the resolution says the work includes making the building LEED certified under a program that exists for existing buildings; upgrades to the building envelope and “other exterior work”; and “upgrades” inside the building.
The facade and roof of city hall underwent $13 million in major restoration work from 2009 to 2011.
The executive committee also awarded $74,995 to the Douglas Mental Health University Institute at Wednesday’s meeting to carry out a seasonal count of Montreal’s homeless population between Aug. 20 and Sept. 11. A wintertime census in March came up with 3,016 homeless people.