Pierrefonds land linked to Mafia can be developed
Montreal hedges on promise to block development and create eco-territory
A parcel of land in the largest remaining natural space on Montreal Island, where the administration of Mayor Denis Coderre vowed last year it would block development to create an eco-territory, is for sale by a group of people and companies that have links to a who’s who of the Montreal Mafia.
And the Coderre administration now says that residential construction on the piece of land near Gouin Blvd. W. in western Pierrefonds is “theoretically” possible. That’s after the administration vowed in June to “completely block all development” on it in response to a Montreal Gazette article that revealed the property’s ownership and the fact that the city had negotiated for years with the owners to buy it for conservation but gave up without trying to expropriate it.
The asking price on a 802,955 square-foot portion of the 3-million square-foot land that’s for sale near Gouin is $12 per square foot, which would come to $9.6 million.
The For Sale notice advertises it as “land for sale for development” and as “prime land next to the l’Anse-à-l’Orme natural park” where the zoning is for “one-to-two-floor single-family units.”
The owners are Placements Manchester Brighton Ltée, which is owned by the estate of Gaétan Gosselin, a member of the Mafia who was shot dead in 2013, and Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev Inc., which the Gazette reported in June held in trust shares in the land for a group of individuals and companies that included owners who were identified as members of the Mafia and family members of people identified as Mafia members.
The owners are also advertising for sale or for rent the remaining 2.3 million square feet of land, which is zoned by the province as agricultural and which is immediately south of the parcel that’s for sale for development. The asking rent on that parcel is $150,000 per year on a 20-year lease.
“I know there’s a sector that falls within a zone that allows for development, so then theoretically it can be developed,” city executive committee member Russell Copeman, who is responsible for housing and urban planning for the Coderre administration, said on Tuesday when asked to comment about the land being advertised for sale for development by its owners.
If developed, the property would have the only new housing inside a 180-hectare conservation zone. The borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro zoned part of the companies’ land near Gouin as residential more than a decade ago. In fact, the northern tip of the land is subdivided for 11 single-family dwellings, according to real-estate records.
Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev was a holdout land owner inside the eco-territory zone that didn’t sell or cede its land to the city.
In June, Copeman said the city would block development of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land designated for the l’Anse-àl’Orme eco-territory, even if the city doesn’t expropriate it.
On Tuesday, Copeman said that he was referring in June to “the part that’s in the eco-territory. I didn’t make that comment with regard to the small portion ... which is already zoned residential.”
However, at his press conference in reaction to the Gazette article on June 29, Copeman said: “There’s a part north of the L’Anse-à-l’Orme River that’s effectively zoned residential. That’s a question for Pierrefonds-Roxboro. It’s they who control the zoning. And that part is also identified in the landuse plan as dominantly residential affectation. But that doesn’t mean there will be residential development there because in part it’s in a flood zone, it’s inside the ecoterritory, there aren’t (water and sewer) services. So the city has all the means to block development even in the part that’s in the zoning for residential development. And I repeat, the city has the intention to completely block all development on this land.”
On Tuesday, Copeman said the city’s possibility to control the development of the land that’s zoned residential comes from the fact that anyone wishing to build on it will have to negotiate with the city to build the necessary infrastructure, including roads, sewers and an aqueduct.
But Copeman added that it’s too soon to say whether the Coderre administration would approve an infrastructure agreement with a developer.
“I don’t know,” Copeman said. “It’s premature to say that.
“We’re not there yet. ... I’m not the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro. I don’t know if there’s any concrete project for development in that area. I have no idea. You’d have to speak to the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro.”
Pierrefonds-Roxboro mayor Dimitrios (Jim) Beis has not returned Montreal Gazette calls.
Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev paid $1.89 million for the property in 1988. The strip starts near Gouin and descends toward the border of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, crossing l’Anse-à-l’Orme Rd. and the river of the same name.
For the past decade, successive city administrations have simultaneously designated the portion of the Manchester Brighton/UniDev land near Gouin as residential in some municipal documents and as conservation in other municipal documents.
For example, Coderre, Copeman and Beis presented a map of the eco-territory at a press conference on June 26. The map shows the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land in green along with the rest of the eco-territory.
However, Montreal’s land-use plan, approved by the Coderre administration in January 2015, marks the portion of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land near Gouin for residential usage.
Montreal’s 2004 urban plan, unveiled by then-mayor Gérald Tremblay’s administration, marked the Manchester Brighton/ Uni-Dev land above the river, along with most of western Pierrefonds, for residential construction up to 10 storeys.
A residential vocation was retained for the area in a 2007 map in the urban plan.
But the Tremblay administration also publicly pledged to conserve 180 hectares of western Pierrefonds. A map it produced in August 2006 showed all of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land inside the future eco-territory, as did a February 2011 map.
Projet Montréal contends the city is shirking its responsibility to protect the land from development.
“The city has all the tools to protect this land so that it’s not developed and so that it be protected,” Projet councillor Éric Alan Caldwell said. “For us, that’s what should have been done, that’s what must be done for Montrealers and for the people of Pierrefonds-Roxboro, and that’s the promise Mr. Copeman made.
“And since it wasn’t done, then the city didn’t exercise its responsibility. And that’s highly reprehensible.”