Plante claims Coderre can't be trusted to protect views of Mount Royal
Mayoral candidate Denis Coderre's stated plan to allow skyscrapers higher than Mount Royal to be built in downtown Montreal threatens the city's integrity, incumbent mayor Valérie Plante said Tuesday.
Plante was joined at her press conference, held on Parc Ave. at the foot of Mount Royal, by renowned architect and heritage conservationist Phyllis Lambert, who threw her official support behind Plante and denounced Coderre's vision.
“We are here, both of us, to talk about the importance of protecting the views of the mountain, and from the mountain,” Plante said.
“Mount Royal is a visual reference point for everybody. It is a real jewel for Montrealers, and they are terribly attached to it . ... New York has its Central Park, Paris its Eiffel Tower, London its Big Ben. … We have our Mount Royal.
“The idea of hiding Mount Royal is, for us, heresy,” she said.
Coderre, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, has backpedalled from a declaration, clearly stated in the book he published last spring, that he favours changing the city's urban plan to allow much higher skyscrapers in order to increase density in the downtown core. He has said he now favours “gentle densification” and will protect views of Mount Royal.
But Plante challenged Coderre to put a commitment in his platform that he won't change the rule on building heights.
Plante notes a consensus was reached three decades ago, after long consultations between the city, urban planning experts and the public, that buildings in Montreal should not be taller than the mountain. That consensus was enshrined in the city's urban plan back in 1992, in the form of a bylaw forbidding buildings higher than 232.5 metres above sea level.
“In the last three decades there have been enormous efforts made by the city of Montreal to protect its heritage, which led us to get the designation of a UNESCO City of Design,” Plante said. That designation, awarded in 2006, is up for review and renewal this year.
Plante said Coderre's ideas threaten that designation, as well as “the integrity of downtown.”
In Coderre's book Retrouver Montréal, he writes: “If we want a world-class downtown, growing from year to year, we will have to exceed the height of the cross on Mount Royal with our skyscrapers.”
In August, Coderre repeated to Radio-canada his plan to modify the bylaw, although he insisted he would not allow skyscrapers to surround the mountain itself.
“We will protect Mount Royal as always has been done, and as I did in any case” when in power, Coderre said then.
“But density is a serious issue. We have to get away from this endless dogma. We have to stop with these fixed ideas and have a real debate on this issue.”
Plante accused Coderre of painting anyone who believes in protecting Mount Royal and other aspects of Montreal's heritage as a dogmatist. She said when in power, Coderre catered to developers, letting them build whatever would maximize their profits, rather than carefully planning projects that meet the needs of Montrealers.
She cited as an example Le Triangle, a condominium district in Côte-des-neiges—notre-damede-Grâce, and the redevelopment of the Montreal Children's Hospital site, which will go ahead without a social housing component. She blamed the latter on the Coderre administration including a clause in the contract allowing the developer to pay a fine rather than fulfil a commitment to build 174 units of social housing as part of the development.
For her part, Lambert said she supports Plante's re-election because she agrees with Plante's vision for the city's future. She praised projects such as the renovation and conservation of the city hall building, widening the sidewalks on Ste-catherine St. and the creation of new and “imaginative” public gathering places.
Lambert said Montreal's strength is its built and natural heritage, including the mountain. Those elements have been protected thanks to generations of Montrealers who have stood strong against developers, and sometimes administrations, who would turn the city into a generic one, she said.
“I think Mr. Coderre is a man of the '60s,” Lambert said, comparing him to former mayor Jean Drapeau, whose administration allowed large swaths of historic neighbourhoods to be razed to make way for new developments.
She gave Coderre's administration credit for preserving the Maison Louis-hippolyte La Fontaine, but denounced it for allowing the demolition of the Maison Redpath.
Plante said Coderre is the candidate who wants to deregulate construction in the city to facilitate development, while her Projet Montréal party prefers to work with developers to ensure they integrate elements like social housing, schools and green space into their projects.
She said she is all for development in the downtown area, and for increasing density, but it must be done in a way that preserves the human scale and charm of the city.
“It doesn't have to be done in a way that we become a very generic downtown core like any other North American city,” said Plante.
Lambert said developers complain about the Plante administration because they can't just do what they want. Plante did not disagree with that comment.
“There will always be some developers that are not happy that I am telling them, `Yeah, you may have to re-evaluate your profit margin.' I can see why they don't like that … but it is a privilege to build in Montreal and it's good for them. They make big bucks. … It's their business model (to maximize profits), but my business model as mayor of this city is to make sure those buildings fill the needs of the population that live in them and around them as well.”