Building freezes buy time for cities in flux, Ste-anne's mayor says
While Pointe-claire is facing a mounting legal battle with several developers, including Cadillac Fairview, over its temporary building freeze, another West Island mayor familiar with the inand-outs of an RCI, or Règlement de contrôle intérimaire, says they are an effective legal tool for cities.
Ste-anne-de-bellevue Mayor Paola Hawa has used them in her town to prevent certain sectors, including green spaces, from unwanted development. She was not surprised that Cadillac Fairview and other developers are now taking the city of Pointe-claire to court.
“It was predictable,” said Hawa, a lawyer, who says using an RCI judiciously is an effective way for cities to buy time while they revise or alter urban planning programs or local zoning.
“It's a legal tool that you use that is sort of like a forewarning to a developer or any land owner that, watch out, we're about to change the zoning,” she said.
“If you do it before they deposit a permit request, it is absolutely 100 per cent legal. And you do not have damages to pay. If you change it from high density residential to industrial, for example, too bloody bad for the landowner. It's a blow to the nose of any developer. They 're scared of that tool.”
Hawa said a freeze can last indefinitely, but only with sound reason.
“In Ste-anne's we left it in for five or six years. We established a jurisprudence that there is no time limit. You still have to demonstrate that you're reasonable. You can't use it as a tool to paralyze (development), but if you demonstrate to the court that you're freezing it and doing your studies, like environmental, economic impact and traffic and all that stuff, and you're doing public consultations, then you can justify the length of time that it takes. You just can't put it in, sit back and let it rot.”
Hawa said a development freeze can also be an important tool in saving green spaces like the Fairview Forest.
It was also used by the city of Beaconsfield over a decade ago in an effort prevent Angell Woods from being developed.
“It forces a developer to come to deal with the city because you hold all the cards,” she said. “It will show promoters you mean business and it will show the population that you are serious. And it will buy you time.”
Pointe-claire council voted unanimously last month to adopt the temporary freeze until the city can revise its urban planning program by 2024.
The freeze applies to Pointeclaire's city centre sector (which includes the Fairview Forest), as well as some other areas, including the Pointe-claire Village and Pointe area, the Valois Village, as well as the Pointe-claire Plaza at St. Jean Blvd. and Highway 20.
Cadillac Fairview officials argue the project's architectural plans were submitted to the city in July of 2021 and conformed to the city's planning program adopted in 2018.
However, the city refuted those claims.
Cadillac Fairview recently unveiled its parking lot project at Fairview shopping centre that would include a senior's building with 435 residential units, and two residential buildings with a combined 400 rental units.
The buildings would be approximately 25 storeys.
Mayor Tim Thomas said the city will not grant a special exemption from the freeze to Cadillac Fairview.