swansongtoo

Et voilà du 32e du Complexe.

Six étages plus haut donc du 32e au Complexe et la perspective change pas mal.

32e du Complexe ce matin.

Article qui me rend sans parole a comment le MTQ et gouvernement gèrent les choses. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/whats-to-become-of-the-met?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1653128372 What's to become of the Met? WEEKEND READ | Montreal’s crumbling monument to the automobile — the busiest highway in the province — is at the end of its lifespan. Yet all that’s been promised is a “major repair." Author of the article: Linda Gyulai • Montreal Gazette Publishing date: May 21, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 13 minute read • Join the conversation “I don’t think they’ve ever done a major overhaul,” veteran traffic commentator Rick Leckner says of the Met. “There have been a lot of repairs, for sure, as conditions demanded. It seems to be non-stop.” PHOTO BY PIERRE OBENDRAUF /Montreal Gazette First in a three-part series Traffic expert Rick Leckner on the long road to our crumbling Met The Met, Montreal’s crumbling concrete monument to the automobile, is 100 years old. Or at least the project to build a metropolitan boulevard across the entire island is marking the milestone. Montreal’s first full-length east-west roadway wasn’t planned as an elevated structure when it was approved in 1922. The concrete and aerial ambition came later. Still, motorists claiming they’ve gone prematurely grey idling in gridlock on the dreaded expressway will be forgiven if they don’t partake of the birthday cake. A century after the metropolitan boulevard was born, and a half-century after it was finally completed, a mainly elevated 12-kilometre stretch of it between Côte-de-Liesse Expressway and Provencher Blvd. is at the end of its lifespan. Arguably, the Met has been on life support for decades. Can any Montrealer of any age recall a time when the concrete columns holding up the Met were not visibly cracked and exposing rusted steel rods where plates of concrete had detached, or when the roadbed didn’t offer a — tha-thunk — rocky voyage across disjointed joints and potholes? “If I had a car, I wouldn’t drive on the Met,” said Peter Trent, the former mayor of Westmount. He became acquainted with the expressway’s afflictions in an earlier career, while working on the highway’s first “major” repair in 1977. Trent and his business partner, Raymond Charlebois, had invented high-density polymer concrete, a material they patented worldwide. As part of the broader repair, Transport Quebec, the provincial ministry that controls the Metropolitan, had contracted their company, Plastibeton Inc., to cover the already crumbling exterior sidewalls of the expressway with protective panels made of their impervious invention. “We were told, ‘This is a holding pattern until we can replace the whole thing,'” Trent said. “That was 1977.” Instead, the Met underwent a second “major” repair in 1990. And every provincial government since 1999 has pledged to carry out one more big fix. So far, none has followed through. What has ensued are urgent repairs, maintenance and sporadic attempts at rectifying some of the built-in design flaws that years ago earned the Met the reputation of worst designed, most dangerous highway in North America. Yet the piecemeal investments have not added any more capacity to the expressway, improved over-all traffic flow or cured it of all its dangerous left-hand exits and exits that are too close to entrance lanes. And, of course, it’s still falling apart. Observers describe a paralyzing limbo when it comes to planning the future of the Met, even though it’s a linchpin of the provincial highway system. Oct. 22, 1958: Construction of the concrete pillars to hold up the Met. Montreal city archives. “Metropolitan Expressway” is the official name of the elevated portion of Highway 40, which in turn is the name given to the section of the Trans-Canada Highway that travels across the island of Montreal. All of it forms the trans-island metropolitan boulevard whose piecemeal construction began in the 1930s and morphed into a partially elevated freeway in the 1950s. While it was built to handle 89,000 vehicles per day, the Met blew past that number four years after its first elevated section opened in 1960. Traffic hovers around an average of 200,000 cars and trucks per day. In fact, traffic at the most congested part, the Décarie Interchange, averaged around 250,000 vehicles a day during the two years before the pandemic hit. A study released by the Canadian Automobile Association in 2017 found the stretch of the Met between Côte-de-Liesse and Pie-IX Blvd. (near Provencher) is the third-biggest bottleneck in the country, causing motorists to lose nearly two million hours a year, burn an additional 1.3 million litres of gasoline and release an extra 11 million kilograms of CO2 into the air. As the figures suggest, the Met isn’t just any highway. It’s the busiest in the province, and the backbone of the Quebec economy. It’s also the busiest stretch of the Trans-Canada in the country. As a result, existential questions like ‘whither the Met’ and pragmatic ones like whether and when to shut a section of it for repair are complicated by concerns about the flow of goods through eastern Canada. “I think definitely it’s at the end of its lifespan,” veteran traffic commentator Rick Leckner said. He has for decades lamented the poor design of the Metropolitan Expressway, which was built without shoulders and too many entrances and exits. Such flaws contribute to the congestion. Leckner has also long condemned Quebec and Montreal’s inaction to complete the beltway of connected roads that would allow trucks to bypass the island. He and other experts say they’re baffled by the willingness of successive provincial governments to pay extraordinary amounts of money to patch a structure that everybody seems to agree has never worked. “How do you define ‘major repair’? I don’t think they’ve ever done a major overhaul,” Leckner said of the Met. “There have been a lot of repairs, for sure, as conditions demanded. It seems to be non-stop. Just tear the bloody thing down and build a new one.” “Everybody knows it has to be replaced,” says Pierre Barrieau, a transportation planner and lecturer with Université de Montréal’s urban planning and landscape architecture school. “And everybody says, ‘We’ll just put a Band-Aid on it for now and it’ll be somebody else’s problem down the road.’” PHOTO BY DAVE SIDAWAY /Montreal Gazette Some cities in North America have torn down their mid-century elevated highways, notably Boston, San Francisco and Seattle. Others, like New York City and Syracuse, N.Y., are considering that drastic option for their decaying overhead relics. But dismantlement isn’t in the cards for Montreal’s Metropolitan Expressway. The Coalition Avenir Québec government has put the kibosh on any proposal for the Met that has been floated on and off for decades, including rebuilding it or replacing it with an at-grade boulevard, a tunnel, or both. “It will be more modern, but it will look like the current highway,” the CAQ’s junior transportation minister, Chantal Rouleau, told the Journal de Montréal in January 2019 about the impending “major” repair to the Met that has been promised for over 20 years. She specifically ruled out following the lead of the city of Montreal, which decided in the early 2000s to raze the part of the elevated Bonaventure Expressway that was on city territory. In its place, Montreal built a ground-level boulevard and a new entrance to the city. Transport Quebec spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun says replacement and reconstruction of the Met were ruled out because of several constraints, including the highway’s critical role in ensuring traffic mobility in the region. She called the coming repair “excessively major” even if it won’t be as long-lasting as a rebuild. The ministry says the repair will make it possible to operate the Met “without further major intervention for a period of about 25 years.” But it acknowledges this “major repair” may be the last. “At this time, the ministry preferred to concentrate on a major repair, which will already be a first step to plan the next interventions, which could maybe be its reconstruction,” Bensadoun said. Leckner calls the 25-year horizon a joke. “Who builds roads for 25 years?” he said. “It’s outrageous.” Trent says the province is just kicking the challenge of replacing the Met to the next generation and washing its hands of the problem. “I’m really appalled that something we were trying to solve 45 years ago has come back with a vengeance,” he said. “Even if it did last for another 25 years, what are we going to do then?” The price tag on the next “major” repair of the Met was estimated at close to $1 billion in 2003. Rouleau said in her 2019 interview that it will cost several billion dollars. “There’s a question of throwing good money after bad,” said Pierre Barrieau, a transportation planner and lecturer with Université de Montréal’s urban planning and landscape architecture school. “Fixing the Metropolitan Expressway is getting more and more expensive and after a while there’s a decision that has to be made. … We have to say, ‘You know what? This is becoming way too expensive, we have to tear it down.’ I think we’ve been at that stage for a while now.” Cars line up to merge eastbound onto the Metropolitan from the Décarie Expressway. The Met was built to handle 89,000 vehicles per day. During the two years before the pandemic hit, traffic at the most congested part, the Décarie Interchange, averaged around 250,000 vehicles a day. PHOTO BY DAVE SIDAWAY /Montreal Gazette Rouleau, one of the CAQ’s two MNAs on Montreal Island and the minister responsible for the Montreal region, refused an interview request to talk about the Met. “It’s simply not possible, that’s all,” her spokesperson, Catherine Boucher, said without offering an explanation. Meantime, Transport Quebec has stepped up inspections of the structure. Twenty-five of the 68 sections that make up the Met underwent a thorough general inspection last year, and they’re on the ministry’s list for a look-over this year to monitor for any change in condition. And while the ministry says that a general inspection is done on average every three years, 26 sections of the Met that are scheduled for one in 2022 had their last general inspection two years ago. Transport Quebec engineers present the damage in photos and sometimes gory detail in their inspection reports. For example, the August 2020 report on a section of the highway identified as 14870K1 found “exposed, corroded reinforcements,” “very significant vibration of the decking during the passage of heavy trucks,” “damage to columns and headers that could significantly affect the load-bearing capacity” and a “loss of section of more than 30 per cent.” The report on 14870K1, which is a portion of the Met passing over Côte-de-Liesse in St-Laurent borough, also mentions damage to the decking “significantly affecting its ability to withstand and distribute loads.” A box marked “risk of falling concrete fragments” is ticked off, as it is on the inspection sheets for many of the 60-odd sections of the Met. Transport Quebec’s Bensadoun said such “localized” defects don’t affect overall capacity. She also assured the highway is safe without introducing weight limits, and that it’s constantly monitored. “I have cause for concern,” Alan DeSousa, the mayor of St-Laurent borough, said when the Montreal Gazette recently showed him the inspection report on 14870K1. However, there was a development last week. DeSousa said he was relieved to learn from his borough staff that it discovered Transport Quebec had plans to start repair work in June on the underside and on the deck joints of the section in question and elsewhere. But that turned out to be false hope. Bensadoun told the Montreal Gazette that while other maintenance work is planned along the Met this summer, the scheduled work on the underside of the structures in question will not go ahead because the bids submitted for the contract were much higher than Transport Quebec’s estimate. She said the ministry will launch a new call for tenders. “I cannot confirm the timetable for this work,” Bensadoun said. News of the delay prompted DeSousa to urge Transport Quebec to launch a new call for tenders and start the work as soon as possible. “I’ll be holding my breath until they actually do the work because the risks are there,” he said. “In the meantime, I would call on the Ministry of Transport to make sure all safety measures be taken with regard to the designated sites, in part because of the concerns raised in the report, and two because of the delays. I would not want there to be an unfortunate incident.” Some cities in North America have torn down their mid-century elevated highways, notably Boston, San Francisco and Seattle. But dismantlement isn’t in the cards for Montreal’s Metropolitan Expressway. PHOTO BY DAVE SIDAWAY /Montreal Gazette It’s not like Rouleau’s boss, Premier François Legault, has an aversion to mega projects benefitting automobiles, notably tunnels. With the October provincial election looming, the Legault government recently unveiled a new $6.5-billion version of a “3rd link” tunnel his government has been yearning to build under the St. Lawrence River to connect Quebec City and “downtown” Lévis, even though critics say that building a new bridge would be less costly and suffice. Legault said the tunnel is necessary because the wait time on Quebec City’s two existing bridges “will be greater than the waiting time on the Montreal bridges” whenever the population of Quebec City will grow. His political opponents mocked his comparison of Quebec City’s traffic woes to those of the metropolis, noting that Quebec City isn’t even on an island. It’s the old story, Trent said of how the replacement of the Met is idling while projects elsewhere are speeding along. “No cost is too high to please the Quebec City area voters who, like in Laval and the North Shore, always get the royal treatment by threatening to vote against the party in power,” he said. “Montreal Island just votes in a predictable pattern. Montreal is rarely on the government’s priority list. With the CAQ, we’re not even on a list, full stop. Getting re-elected trumps any other consideration.” Tunnelling the Metropolitan Expressway makes more sense than building a tunnel in Quebec City, Barrieau said. Unlike the “3rd link” proposed for Quebec City, the Metropolitan is a “critical piece of the transportation network in eastern Canada,” he said. The Quebec City tunnel would almost exclusively serve commuters, Barrieau added, in part because trucks hauling hazardous materials are barred from tunnels. “Building the tunnel in the way that they’re proposing is basically just asking for more urban sprawl for Quebec City,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense.” But the CAQ’s electoral base is in the Quebec City area, Barrieau said. “And that is a fundamental element in understanding why they’re pushing the 3rd link in Quebec City. It’s ideological, not logical.” Legault has also demonstrated that he has no aversion to new transportation projects in Montreal — so long as they’re seen to benefit the east end of the island, where the CAQ has its two seats. The premier and his government are boosters of the $10-billion REM de l’Est electric train project that Quebec’s pension-fund manager was proposing to connect downtown Montreal and Pointe-aux-Trembles at the east end of the island. Legault announced last week that he was canceling the downtown portion of the proposed network, stating the aerial concrete structure that CDPQ Infra proposed to splice the downtown core — which Trent says resembles the Metropolitan Expressway — lacked social acceptability. However, the premier offered no disavowal of an elevated concrete structure along the rest of the 32-kilometre route. “It is crucial for the development of the east end of Montreal,” Legault said at a press conference with Mayor Valérie Plante to announce that Quebec and Montreal were taking over management of the REM de l’Est project now that CDPQ Infra has backed out. He also said he’d like to extend the REM de l’Est to off-island Laval and the Lanaudière region. While Legault said he wants to move the REM de l’Est forward as quickly as possible, he acknowledged the opening will be delayed beyond the original target of 2029. Dinu Bumbaru, the policy director of Heritage Montreal, said the delay offers an opportunity to consider moving the light rail network to the Metropolitan Expressway corridor. The Met is an existing “scar” that requires rehabilitation, he noted. Moving the REM de l’Est to the existing transportation corridor that was intended a century ago to connect the east and west ends of the island seems logical, he said. “The point is to examine it, diligently,” Bumbaru said. 1961: A year-old Metropolitan Expressway at Décarie Blvd., before all the traffic jams. Montreal city archives If it had been left up to the province to build the Met 100 years ago, Montreal might still be waiting. It was the municipalities on the island that traced the boulevard and then jointly funded and built it when they grew tired of waiting for promised funding from the province and for the federal government to make up its mind on building the Trans-Canada Highway. The Quebec government bought the Metropolitan Expressway from the municipalities in 1961 for $122 million. Barrieau and Leckner point out that Quebec has a history of postponement and poor planning. In 2020, Transport Quebec announced the long-promised “major” repair of the Met is so massive it will be divided in two. However, no timeline or budget is yet available for the first project encompassing the eastern section of the expressway, from St-Laurent Blvd. to Provencher, or the one that will follow for the portion west of St-Laurent to Côte-de-Liesse. The ministry recently awarded engineering contracts to create the plans and specifications for each project, a process that it says will take two to three years. Barrieau said he doubts the Met repair project will begin before “at least a decade, a decade-and-a-half” and be completed before 2040. Work is already behind on other deteriorating infrastructure in the Montreal region, and major road and bridge projects can’t be overlapped or they will strangle the city, he said. Major repairs to the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel to Longueuil have begun and are expected to take 10 years. Meanwhile, the province is preparing for the reconstruction of the St-Pierre Interchange and the Honoré-Mercier Bridge, along with the reconstruction of the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge, Barrieau said. Even so, Quebec should already be busy planning the replacement of the Met, he said. “It’s always been in the philosophy of Transport Quebec to never sufficiently plan ahead of time what to do if a structure is at the end of its useful life,” Barrieau said, and that applies also to the Met. “Everybody knows it has to be replaced. And everybody says, ‘We’ll just put a Band-Aid on it for now and it’ll be somebody else’s problem down the road.’” The Met has been wounded so long, the old Band-Aids have to be changed. The high-tech panels that Trent’s company installed in 1977 were removed years later when Transport Quebec finally repaired the concrete underneath. But those “new” exterior sidewalls are broken again. The list of work included in Transport Quebec’s impending “excessively major” repair calls for reconstruction of the exterior sidewalls. Perhaps the third try will be the charm. lgyulai@postmedia.com

Prend une photo de nouveau dans six mois.

Ce n’est pas la photo la plus hot du VSLP mais on l’aperçoit un peu du 26e au Complexe.

Meanwhile … https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2022-05-03/valerie-plante-a-fait-volte-face-sur-le-rem-de-l-est-dit-le-pdg-de-la-caisse.php Valérie Plante a fait volte-face sur le REM de l’Est, dit le PDG de la Caisse PHOTO DAVID BOILY, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE Valérie Plante (Québec) La mairesse de Montréal Valérie Plante était « ravie » de la proposition de la Caisse de dépôt sur le projet du REM une semaine avant de mettre à mort le projet de transport collectif, s’étonne le PDG de l’institution financière, Charles Émond. Publié à 12h15 Mis à jour à 13h39 CHARLES LECAVALIERLA PRESSE « J’ai appris il y a 10 jours du gouvernement qu’il y a eu un appel de la mairesse comme quoi elle voulait faire un autre projet. La dernière conversation, il y a deux, trois semaines avec elle, elle était ravie avec la proposition écrite qu’on lui avait soumise. Elle avait une place à la table », a souligné M. Émond mardi lors d’une rare mêlée de presse avec les médias, en marge de l’étude des crédits budgétaires du ministère des Finances. M. Émond affirme qu’il n’est pas du tout amer de la façon dont les choses se sont passées. Mais il ajoute que le nouveau projet devra renoncer au nom « REM de l’Est », une marque déposée de la CDPQ. PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE Charles Émond Lundi, le premier ministre François Legault a annoncé officiellement, avec la ministre Chantal Rouleau et la mairesse de Montréal Valérie Plante, que CDPQ Infra se retirait du développement du projet de REM de l’Est, qui est désormais sous la responsabilité du gouvernement. M. Émond souligne que Mme Plante a parfaitement le droit de « changer d’idée pour faire un autre projet ». Mais a-t-elle prise cette décision dans l’intervalle d’une semaine entre la conversation avec M. Émond, où elle était « ravie », et son appel au bureau du premier ministre pour mettre fin au projet, où a-t-elle plutôt manqué d’honnêteté ? « Je ne peux pas lire dans sa tête, elle ne m’a pas rappelé », a-t-il dit. 100 millions pour les études Le PDG a également confirmé que le gouvernement du Québec lui remboursera une somme de près de 100 millions pour compenser les coûts de CDPQ Infra, qui livrera en échange toutes les études qu’elle a réalisées. « On n’est pas sorti du REM de L’Est, on n’a pas embarqué dans le nouveau projet » a-t-il affirmé. Il a d’ailleurs appris que ce « nouveau projet » allait desservir d’autres régions, Laval et Lanaudière. « Je ne pense pas qu’on peut appeler ça torpiller. Elle a décidé d’aller vers un autre projet. […] Il ne pourra pas s’appeler le REM de l’est, parce que c’est une marque déposée de la Caisse », a-t-il dit. Plus d’argent dans le PQI Puisque le gouvernement du Québec sera maintenant responsable du projet de transport collectif, il devra trouver de la place dans ses livres comptables pour son budget de 10 milliards. Le ministre des Finances Eric Girard n’y voit aucun problème. « S’il est nécessaire d’ajouter 10 milliards au Plan québécois des infrastructures pour quelques projets que ce soit, le prochain gouvernement, le prochain ministre des Finances aura la capacité de le faire. Parce que le bilan est excellent », a-t-il dit durant l’étude des crédits. Il ne veut pas toutefois annoncer aujourd’hui que le budget du PQI sera rehaussé puisque nous sommes « avant les élections ». Mais il y a de la place pour augmenter « significativement » les budgets dans le budget de 2023, a-t-il souligné. « Il n’est pas question de couper dans le PQI ».

Si la ligne bleue sert comme blue print et inspiration il n’est pas impossible que cette question soit pertinente dans quatre ans. Pour ces élections il est très très peu probable.

Is the city onboard or can still be troublesome?

Deuxième crane ce matin.

26e Complexe Desjardins ce matin.

26e Complexe Desjardins ce matin.

J’espère que le lettrage sur la façade sera restorer.

Pour Rocco.

17e étage Robert Bourassa et DeM a l’instant.

C'est ça. Rien force les promoteurs a faire quoi que se soit. Quoi que je ne travaille pas dans l'industrie je suis de plus en plus convaincu que PM qui rend la vie difficile pour eux est une des raisons capitale pour la quelle qu'il n'y a rien que se passe en ville en terme d'annonce de nouveaux projets majeurs.

I've mentioned this before but prior to moving to their current VSL location Ikea was located where Winner's sits at Place Alexis Nihon.

And the other shoe drops. Tellement prévisible. PM rend vraiment pas la vie facile au promoteurs. Le commentaire qui en dit long est que ça fait trois ans qui ça traîne et le promoteur est écœuré. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/citizen-protest-halts-plans-for-20-storey-condo-along-lachine-canal Citizen protest halts plans for 20-storey condo along Lachine Canal Griffintown residents overturned the borough's decision to grant an exemption to the zoning bylaw that limits building heights. Author of the article: Linda Gyulai • Montreal Gazette Publishing date: Apr 08, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation "A group of us showed that citizen involvement can work," said one organizer of the neighbourhood's protest against the zoning exemption. PHOTO BY PIERRE OBENDRAUF /Montreal Gazette Article content Citizens have thwarted the construction of a 20-storey condo tower that was planned along the Lachine Canal. Advertisement 2 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Faster rate hikes, cooling home prices could put the squeeze on HELOC holders The Sud-Ouest borough, which had supported the 295-unit development by Omnia Technologies Inc., announced on Friday that council members are now refusing a zoning exemption and change to the urban plan for Griffintown that would have permitted a building up to 60 metres tall on the site of the former Lucky Luc horse stables on Bassins St., between Richmond Ave. and Seigneurs St. “I’m very happy,” said Louise Bédard, one of the people who organized the neighbourhood’s protest against the zoning exemption, on Friday. Most buildings along the same side of the canal are eight storeys. “In the past two weeks, a group of us showed that citizen involvement can work.” Opponents said the project would obscure views of Mount Royal, overshadow the canal’s industrial heritage and set a precedent for more 20-storey towers. Advertisement 3 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Bédard said she learned Friday that the borough had received a record number of letters opposed to the project. Residents also staged a protest at the site on Tuesday. Bédard said she and two other residents were invited to a meeting on Friday with councillor Craig Sauvé and borough mayor Benoit Dorais’s chief of staff, Julie Bélanger, where they were told the news. Dorais was not present, Bédard said. In a statement posted later on his Facebook page, Dorais announced that borough council members had rejected the project. The council is dominated by Mayor Valérie Plante’s Projet Montréal party. “If the Sud-Ouest council agreed to present this particular project to the population, it is because we saw the possibility of reaping significant positive spinoffs for the district,” Dorais wrote. Projects that are at variance with zoning regulations “make it possible to negotiate spinoffs, requirements not otherwise permitted, or even to go further in the demands of the neighbourhood,” he wrote. Advertisement 4 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content However, Dorais added, “upon reading the public consultation report, which the elected officials have reviewed, we find that the population did not share this opinion. We have heard you and respect the will that has been expressed.” In exchange for the zoning exemption, Omnia Technologies had offered to construct a building with 50 social housing units on William St. and build a park and public passageway on its land near the tower. Jean-François Beaulieu, president of Omnia Technologies, said on Friday he was unaware of the borough’s decision. “We proposed a project that had been asked for by the city,” he said. “It was the city that suggested 20 storeys. They don’t want to do it anymore. I’m just tired of waiting. We bought the land three years ago.” Advertisement 5 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Beaulieu’s company doesn’t require borough approval to build a residential project that conforms to existing regulations. The urban plan allows 25 metres or eight storeys, while the zoning bylaw permits 20 metres or six storeys. Asked whether he would still build 50 social housing units, Beaulieu said that was off the table. “If we build a project as of right now, we won’t build social housing,” he said. Under the city’s new housing bylaw, a developer can make a financial contribution in lieu of building social housing units. lgyulai@postmedia.com

A l’instant du 21e étage de la CCE.

Ça aurait peut être été plus esthétique si les deux promoteurs auraient pu travailler ensemble pour concevoir un projet unifier.

Ça s'améliore mais il avait beaucoup d'eau sur le chantier les dernières semaines ce que je suppose à ralenti les travaux.

Cranky citizens. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/borough-allows-fish-to-vote-on-condo-project-but-not-residents-across-lachine-canal Borough allows fish to vote on condo project, but not residents across Lachine Canal "We're happy they're letting the ducks vote," one resident said of the borough's idiosyncratic zoning. "But they've excluded (the) buildings which will be the most impacted by the project." Author of the article: Linda Gyulai • Montreal Gazette Publishing date: Mar 31, 2022 • 8 hours ago • 5 minute read • Join the conversation “The city excluded us for absolutely no reason from the referendum zone,” said Sylvain Letellier, far left, with other residents opposed to a proposed condo tower next to the Lachine Canal. PHOTO BY PIERRE OBENDRAUF /Montreal Gazette Article content Montreal’s Sud-Ouest borough will permit anyone who might live in the waters of the Lachine Canal to vote in a referendum on a proposed 20-storey condo tower next to the canal, but not the residents who live across from the project on the other side of the canal. Advertisement 2 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Several residents said this week they’re angry about being deprived of the right to participate in an eventual referendum on the 295-unit condo proposal for the site of the former Lucky Luc horse stables on des Bassins St., between des Seigneurs St. and Richmond Ave. They accused the borough of gerrymandering with the boundaries of the zones. “The city excluded us for absolutely no reason from the referendum zone,” said Sylvain Letellier, who lives in the low-rise Lofts Corticelli, on the south side of the canal, 140 metres across from the project, which is on the north side. As the Montreal Gazette reported this week, the borough is considering granting a zoning exemption to a developer who is proposing a tower of staggered heights up to 20 storeys, or 60 metres, on the site next to the Lachine Canal. The ground floor of the building, which would rise above St. Gabriel Lock and the Pointe-des-Seigneurs archeological park, would provide commercial space. The developer has offered to build a public park and a passageway on his 1.2-acre site, and to construct a building with about 50 units of social housing on William St. Advertisement 3 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Thursday was the deadline for public comments in a “written public consultation” on the borough’s plan to authorize spot zoning for the site and simultaneously change the urban plan of Griffintown to accommodate a 20-storey building in a sector where the limit is eight storeys. The borough’s notice for the consultation includes a map of the contiguous zones that would be permitted to participate in a register and referendum on the project. The map shows the canal itself as a distinct zone that will be permitted to vote, along with a handful of zones on the north side of the canal. However, buildings on dry land facing the project along the south side are excluded. “We’re very happy they’ve included the fish in the canal. We’re happy they’re letting the ducks vote,” Letellier said, laughing. “But they’ve excluded the Redpath, the Corticelli and the Nordelec buildings, which will be the most impacted by the project.” Advertisement 4 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content However, Marikym Gaudreault, a spokesperson for Mayor Valérie Plante, whose Projet Montréal party dominates the Sud-Ouest borough council, said “the identification of zones is governed by the department of municipal affairs.” Gaudreault said the comments the borough received in the written consultation will be rendered public at a borough council meeting. The next meeting in the Sud-Ouest is scheduled for April 11, where the council is expected to vote on second reading of the project. If it passes, eligible voters in the contiguous zones will be able to petition for a register to try to force a referendum. “On top of this public consultation provided for by law, we demanded an information meeting by the developer,” Gaudreault said. Advertisement 5 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content Letellier, a spokesperson for what he and other residents described as a growing movement against the project that involves several condo associations in western Griffintown, said the group’s first priority is to defend the industrial heritage of the canal. “When you walk along the canal, the buildings that still dominate are the buildings from the industrial history of the canal, which give its heritage value,” he said. “The minute you authorize buildings of this height (of 20 storeys), you hide that perspective and crush the heritage buildings.” The group is also contesting the borough’s process for approving the condo proposal, Letellier said. “We find they’ve done everything they can to not communicate to us about the project and they left us very little time to respond,” he said. Advertisement 6 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content “The rapprochement between the city and developers to build very quickly and cut off any opportunity to oppose is what we find the most revolting. This is clearly why so many people are angry.” Jean-François Beaulieu, the president of the condo builder, Omnia Technologies, said this week his company presented several versions of the project to the city and the 20 storeys was the city’s suggestion. Louise Bédard, an architect who lives in the Corticelli building and has an office in the Redpath complex, said more than two dozen residents who didn’t all know each other before last week mobilized in a day to draft a submission to the borough opposing the project. They’ve also created a website opposing the project (non-a-20-etages.com). Advertisement 7 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content “It’s not just a matter of heights,” Bédard said, “but the procedure of the city where the city has decided it no longer wants to respect its own regulations.” Public notice was also lacking, she said. Many residents and the borough councillor said no sign was posted on the site. “There is a very small sign on the site,” Bédard said. “But you have to search for it to find it.” The borough’s decision to exclude residents on the south side of the canal from the register and referendum “is not democratic,” Bédard said. Residents who don’t live next to the project but who use the canal said they also submitted objections to the borough. “I think it’s ridiculous; it’s far too high for the area,” said Sarah El Queisi, who lives in Pointe-St-Charles near the canal. Advertisement 8 STORY CONTINUES BELOW Article content “The Lachine Canal park went from a park with a beautiful view over the city to basically a wall of condos. And if we build up to 60 metres, it’s going to be worse. It’s going to be a big, windy corridor instead of a park.” Alec Doazan, who lives a few blocks west of the project, said he was “very surprised” to learn of the project by word of mouth. The borough’s presentation on it, he said, suggested that a project built under existing regulations, which cap height at eight storeys but allow a larger footprint, would block views more than a 20-storey but narrower building. The borough’s presentation, Doazan said, “sells it in a way that I find a little dishonest.” lgyulai@postmedia.com

Any view towards the mountain will be blocked by downtown high-rises ... you can forget about pristine mountain views. Typical knee jerk reaction.

Quartier Generale, Volkswagon, now this ... delicate crowd the good citizens of Griffintown are. Wait for the same reaction on the écurie property next to the water.