Pierrefonds project is very unpopular
Political and public opposition appears to be building against the Coderre administration’s plan to allow a large-scale housing project in western Pierrefonds on what is the largest remaining natural space on Montreal Island, but the project developers say that’s only because the public doesn’t know enough yet about the plan.
Ten thousand signatures have been gathered on a petition against the Pierrefonds-Ouest development, a plan that would allow a group of five developers to build 5,500 residential units on the natural space. As well, the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro now has the results of a poll it ordered late last year showing that 13 per cent of local residents approve of a development on the 185 hectares of natural space.
“It’s extremely low,” said Justine McIntyre, a Pierrefonds councillor and leader of the opposition Vrai changement pour Montréal party. “It confirmed what I suspected, that people don’t want more development further west in the West Island.”
McIntyre said she learned of the poll results at a caucus meeting in the borough last week. The study, by the firm Saine Marketing, polled 602 people from different sectors of Pierrefonds by phone between Nov. 18 and Dec. 3 about their satisfaction with different borough services. Among the results, it shows that 26 per cent of those polled are aware of a project for the western Pierrefonds natural space.
“The biggest thing I walked away with from that meeting and that I felt needed to be made public was the fact that there was such a low approval rating for a development in the west,” McIntyre said.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the borough doesn’t mention the low results. Instead, it highlights another poll finding indicating that 40 per cent of residents say they intend to participate in public consultations on the project.
Borough mayor Dimitrios (Jim) Beis did not respond to an interview request on Tuesday.
Mayor Denis Coderre pledged last June to hold a public consultation in the fall on the PierrefondsOuest development.
But there’s still no word from city hall on when a consultation might take place.
“My sense is that it (the project) is being delayed, and the only reason I can come up with is lack of public acceptance,” McIntyre said. “I don’t know how long they can do that for. Eventually, it’s going to have to go to public consultations.”
Projet Montréal party, meanwhile, announced on Tuesday that it will table a motion at the next city council meeting to amend the island’s recently-adopted land-use plan to change the designation for the natural space that’s earmarked for development from housing to conservation.
“It goes against all of land-use and planning principles we’ve given ourselves in Montreal,” Projet Montréal councillor Éric Alan Caldwell said.
“Instead of investing in the existing community in Pierrefonds, in infrastructure, in better access to public transit, we’re going to clear agricultural land that could still be productive, we’re going to build right where there is no infrastructure — no sewers, no aqueduct, no road, and not even a road to get there. We’ll have to invest massively in an urban boulevard in the extension of Highway 440.”
Projet councillor Craig Sauvé noted that the area of the natural space to be developed is equivalent to the area of Mount Royal. It’s also 30 kilometres from downtown Montreal, the same distance from the city as St-Jean-sur-Richelieu or north of Laval, he said.
“So we’re building a suburb in Montreal, it’s quite simply that,” Sauvé said.
“The project goes against every type of objective we could give ourselves in terms of urban planning. It’s very far from the centre of Montreal, so it’s urban sprawl. It’s on top of a green space, and we’re supposed to conserve the maximum amount of green space that we have. And it’s very far away from high-density mass transit, so we’re going to have a lot of people driving a car around in that neighbourhood.”
The developers are eager for the Coderre administration to send the project to a public consultation at the Office de la consultation publique de Montréal, David Cliche, a consultant working for the developers, said.
“They don’t know the project,” Cliche said of residents who are opposed to the development. “So let’s discuss this project publicly.”
At a consultation, the developers, who already own the land in question, will be able to explain that 30 per cent of the units would be affordable housing, including cooperatives and housing for seniors, he said. The project has bike paths and cross-country skiing trails, he added. The five developers behind the project also plan to conserve two marshes and create a buffer zone, he said.
Critics have not panned the project plan, Cliche added. They’re contesting the location. “It’s a not-in-my-backyard approach,” he said.
The holdup appears to be a committee composed of the city’s transportation department, the Société de transport de Montréal and Transport Quebec, Cliche said. The group is still working on an agreement for the province to finance the extension of the 440 and for the STM to plan bus routes to service the new neighbourhood, he said.
“The buses will be full,” Cliche said.
In the meantime, McIntyre said she’ll support Projet Montréal’s motion to amend the land-use plan to designate the land for conservation because she’s against development. That said, she expects the Coderre administration to vote it down.
City executive committee member Russell Copeman called Projet Montréal’s motion unrealistic.
“I’m not entirely sure they know what it means,” he said of the conservation designation. Conservation would require the island council to acquire all of the land from the developers, likely through expropriation.
“We’re potentially looking at hundreds of millions of dollars,” Copeman said. “Are the taxpayers of the agglomeration prepared to spend that?”
The Coderre administration isn’t holding back the project from public consultation, he added.
The holdup is the transportation plan, he said.
“It’s not a lack of transparency,” Copeman said. “The administration is hopeful the (plan) can be presented to the OCPM this fall at the latest.”