Développement immobilier du secteur Pierrefonds-Ouest

[ScarletCoral]

J'ai entendu parlé de ce projet à la radio aujourd'hui

 

sur le site de la Ville

 

Pierrefonds-Ouest

 

Projet

 

 

• Développement immobilier du secteur Pierrefonds-Ouest;
  
• Création d’espaces de conservation d’importance;
  
• Construction d’un boulevard urbain dans l’emprise non construite de l’autoroute 440.
  

Contexte

 

Le secteur de Pierrefonds-Ouest couvre un vaste territoire de 400 hectares situé à l’extrémité ouest de l’arrondissement de Pierrefonds-Roxboro. Une portion de ce territoire est destinée à accueillir une communauté viable, correspondant à l’idée d’un quartier offrant une diversité de services de proximité et d’équipements publics accessibles à tous, des espaces verts de qualité et en nombre suffisant et une variété de typologies d’habitation.

 

Le développement immobilier du secteur s’effectuera en étroite harmonie avec la création d’espaces de conservation. L’agrandissement du parc-nature de l’Anse-à-l’Orme permettra entre autres de créer un vaste corridor écologique et récréatif entre le bois Angell, le parc agricole du Bois-de-la-Roche et le parc-nature du Cap-Saint-Jacques. Il s’inscrira autour de la rivière à l’Orme, seule rivière intérieure de l’île de Montréal, et couvrira une superficie plus grande que le parc du Mont-Royal.

 

La réalisation de ce projet urbain, situé dans un secteur enclavé et non desservi, est tributaire de la mise en place d’infrastructures de transport efficaces et d’infrastructures souterraines. Plus spécifiquement, un boulevard urbain doit être aménagé entre le boulevard Gouin et l'autoroute 40, dans l'emprise non construite de l'autoroute 440 appartenant au ministère des Transports du Québec.

 

Le secteur a fait l’objet d’une démarche de planification impliquant des intervenants du milieu municipal, gouvernemental ainsi que les grands propriétaires fonciers concernés.

 

Objectifs

 

 

• Construire un quartier intégré à un milieu naturel, se distinguant aussi par sa composition urbaine, par la qualité de l’aménagement du domaine public et par un réseau de circulation favorable aux transports collectif et actif;
  
• Protéger un riche patrimoine naturel et une mosaïque de paysages et les mettre en valeur par l’implantation de divers équipements récréatifs.
  

Composantes et caractéristiques

 

 

• Développement immobilier : 185 hectares, incluant :
  
  • plus de 5 000 logements;
    
  • près de 23 hectares de parcs locaux, parcs de quartier et bassins de rétention.
    

   

  [*]Espaces de conservation : 180 hectares

Investissements prévus

 

 

• 20,3 millions de dollars
  

[ScarletCoral]

entrevue avec le maire de l'arrondissement Pierrefonds-Roxboro sur le site de Radio-Canada

 

Pierrefonds-Ouest, un nouveau quartier pour Montréal

 

Le vendredi 26 juin 2015

 

La Ville de Montréal veut développer le secteur Pierrefonds-Ouest. Maxime Coutié s'entretient avec Dimitrios Jim Beis, le maire d'arrondissement de Pierrefonds-Roxboro.

 

 

AUDIO FIL : Projet de développement du secteur Pierrefonds-Ouest avec Dimitrios Jim Beis

[ScarletCoral]

via The Gazette :

City sets aside 'conservation area' for Pierrefonds development, but critics unimpressed

 

Kate Sheridan,

Montreal Gazette

Published on: June 26, 2015

Last Updated: June 26, 2015 7:49 PM EDT

 

Pierrefonds-Roxboro mayor Dimitrios Jim Beis talks at a press conference at Cap St-Jacques in the Pierrefonds area of Montreal Friday, June 26, 2015 where some details of a development project for Pierrefonds west were unveiled.

John Kenney / Montreal Gazette

 

 

A new housing development project planned in Pierrefonds will set aside a “significant” area for conservation, Mayor Denis Coderre announced Friday.

 

Coderre likened the size of the protected area to the park on Mount Royal. However, the plan was met with strong opposition from environmental groups and a few municipal councillors attending the press conference, who said the announcement was no more than an attempt to re-brand a harmful development.

 

The development will bring between 5,000 and 6,000 new houses into the western part of the borough, near the Cap-St-Jacques nature park and the l’Anse-à-l’Orme River, as was previously announced in January as part of the city’s 10-year land use plan. It will have shops, offices, and municipal parks as well as social housing, Coderre said, and two or three schools may be built.

Most of the area included in the conservation area could not be developed anyways, said Justine McIntyre, a city counsellor for Pierrefonds-Roxboro-Bois-de-Liesse who opposes the project. Regulations established by the Minister of the Environment would preclude developments near the river, and the other areas are swamps.

 

The announcement was déjà vu for many who had seen January’s presentation. “It’s the same,” said McIntyre. “They produced a map and named it ‘conservation project’ instead of ‘development project.’”

 

Russell Copeman, the member of the city’s executive committee responsible for housing, agreed that the conservation plan was not new, but noted that some new areas had been added. “The urban development and planning document that was the object of consultations last fall […] already identified the area around the river for conservation,” he said.

 

The project will be based on the principles of sustainable development, Coderre said. As part of the sustainability efforts, the project would integrate urban farming initiatives — including community gardens, green roofs, and a public market.

 

Don Hobus, a co-founder of environmental group Sauvons-l’Anse-à-l’Orme, said he wasn’t convinced that the development will be truly sustainable. “That’s a buzzword that’s come out — green, sustainable, eco-friendly,” he said. Hobus cited an unreleased study, conducted by an ornithologist who is the former president of Bird Protection Quebec, which reported that 160 bird species — 10 of which are endangered — could be impacted by the development. They haven’t yet shown the study to the city because it is still a draft.

 

Sauvons-l’Anse-à-l’Orme is currently circulating a petition opposing the development.

 

David Fletcher, the spokesperson for another environmental group, Green Coalition, is concerned that deer, coyotes, and vole populations in the area would also be harmed and the development would throw the local ecosystem off-balance. “It’s an exceptional area. It’s an asset that is unique on Montreal Island that is going to be forced into collapse. It’s a disaster, as far as I’m concerned.”

 

Residents are also worried that the development — and the thousands of potential commuters who would call it home — would exacerbate local traffic issues. However, Coderre promised that the project would not go forward without the construction of a new “urban boulevard” — a road with bike lanes as well as carpool and public transit lanes — to alleviate some of the issues. “No boulevard, no development project.”

 

Public transit in the area would also be improved, the mayor said.

 

Dimitrios Jim Beis, mayor of the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough, emphasized that the project could take a decade. “The public will be consulted and informed throughout this long process,” he said. Coderre also underlined that consultations would be held. “I know some people are trying to get some political points by saying, ‘We demand consultations.’ Well, there are going to be consultations,” Coderre said.

 

McIntyre rejected the idea that the controversy was politically-driven. “It’s not for political reasons. It’s because it’s not in the best interest of the public. It might be a great development. It’s not the right place to do it.”

 

ksheridan@montrealgazette.com

[andre md]

Ca me depasse qu'on touche aux zone vertes . Ya des terrains partout ailleurs pour develloper. :thumbsdown:

Modifié 27 juin 2015 par andre md

[jesseps]

Like they really need more homes or people over there. Traffic is a nightmare already and this will not help.

[ScarletCoral]

via The Gazette :

 

Montreal's plan for Mafia-linked Pierrefonds land raises questions

 

Linda Gyulai,

Montreal Gazette

Published on: June 29, 2015 | Last Updated: June 29, 2015 8:45 AM EDT

 

Chemin de l' Anse-à-l'Orme cuts through undeveloped land located in Western Pierrefonds

Friday, June 26, 2015. Peter McCabe / Montreal Gazette

 

The city is preparing a plan that has been in the works for a decade to conserve a lush landscape in one of the last large undeveloped natural spaces on Montreal Island.

 

But the coming 180-hectare “eco-territory” in western Pierrefonds, to be made up of tracts of land the city has stitched together through purchases from private owners since the mid-2000s, will be missing a piece of the original territory the city has outlined on maps of its project for a decade.

 

A new map indicating the L’Anse-à-l’Orme eco-territory in a citywide land-use plan that Montreal city council approved in January shows a long strip that will remain private. It cuts vertically across the projected municipal conservation zone and cleaves the future eco-territory in two.

 

Even if the city isn’t buying the 28.5-hectare parcel, it will claim it has acquired and conserved a total of 180 hectares from other landowners in the area — the same as its original target.

But how and why the city decided to abandon the idea of a contiguous eco-territory raises questions.

 

Among them is why the city isn’t using its legal power to expropriate the holdout owner, since other large landowners in the zone have agreed to cede their land for public use to create the eco-territory.

 

Another is how much residential development might occur on the strip of land now that it won’t belong to the eco-territory.

 

And could the city’s decision to give up on acquiring the parcel have anything to do with who owns it?

 

The property in question is owned by a group of people and companies that are linked to a who’s who of the Montreal Mafia.

 

City officials have refused to answer questions and declined interview requests for the past two weeks.

 

Meanwhile, the people who negotiated on behalf of the city to acquire the land for the eco-territory say they knew nothing about the owners of the strip of land, even though names that have been linked to organized crime — such as Arcuri, Gosselin and Manno — are apparent in public land registry records.

 

The land in question is parallel to the Pierrefonds-Senneville border and stretches from just below Gouin Blvd. W. down to the border of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. L’Anse-à-l’Orme River and an adjacent road with the same name traverse the property at about its midway point.

 

The riverbanks are protected natural space, and provincial agricultural zoning prevents the land below the river from being developed. Some of the land above the river is designated as floodplain, although that doesn’t necessarily prohibit construction on it.

 

By the owners’ reckoning, about 10 hectares of land toward Gouin Blvd. can “absolutely” be built on, says Vicky Roy, the administrator of one of the companies that owns the land.

 

Roy is the current president of Placements Manchester Brighton Ltée, which she said she administers as executor of the estate of Gaétan Gosselin, the company’s sole director, who was shot dead in 2013. He was the brother-in-law and associate of Raynald Desjardins, now awaiting trial in the 2011 murder of Salvatore Montagna, the leader of a rival Mafia faction.

 

The land’s owners will put it up for sale in a week or two, Roy said. The section above the river might appeal to developers, she explained, while the agricultural land below it could be sold for farming. She also said the city hasn’t approached her about acquiring the property since she became the company’s administrator two years ago.

 

Placements Manchester Brighton purchased the land with another company, Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev Inc., in 1988. Uni-Dev acquired a 70-per-cent stake, and Placements Manchester Brighton acquired 30 per cent. In 1992, Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev transferred its 70-per-cent stake in trust to several shareholders and was designated to act as their representative.

 

The shareholders initially included a numbered company with directors that included Domenico Manno, uncle of now-deceased Mafia don Vito Rizzuto. Manno is one of three men who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the 1978 murder of Paolo Violi, the Calabrian Mafia leader whose demise brought the Sicilian Rizzuto clan to power. Manno’s wife was listed as a shareholder in the land in 2012.

 

The current president and first shareholder of Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev is Joseph Sciascia, and the vice-president and third shareholder is his wife, Laura Bruno. Sciascia is the son of Gerlando (George from Canada) Sciascia, the Montreal Mafia’s representative in New York when he was shot dead by fellow mobsters in 1999.

 

A numbered company is second shareholder. Its president is Rosa LoPresti, widow of Giuseppe (Joe) LoPresti, who was gunned down in 1992.

 

Starting in 2006, the city identified Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev among 12 owners with land it wanted to acquire in the planned conservation zone.

 

The city contracted consultants to negotiate on its behalf with owners in the zone to buy their land.

 

And the consultants say the representative they met for Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev was Domenico Arcuri Jr.

 

Arcuri was identified in the 2006 police operation Projet Colisée as having visited Café Consenza, the Mafia’s headquarters, 45 times between 2004 and 2006, and was filmed handing money there to Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., father of Vito Rizzuto.

 

Arcuri and his family’s Mafia links were described in La Presse articles in 2005 and 2008 about Mafia investors who lost money with a Montreal firm after a crackdown by Quebec’s financial securities regulator.

 

By the consultants’ accounts, they had four meetings with Arcuri between them from 2006 to 2009, including once at a group meeting for landowners organized by the city parks department to explain the eco-territory project.

 

Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev’s headquarters are listed in Quebec business records as the same address as Arcuri’s Crème Glacée Ital Gelati Inc. ice cream factory in St-Léonard. Arcuri’s father, also named Domenico Arcuri, purchased the ice cream business from the Violi estate after the mobster’s 1978 assassination. Ital Gelati was firebombed in 2012.

 

And that’s where David Cliche, the consultant whom the city of Montreal hired to act as its “facilitator” in the negotiations with the landowners, says he had two meetings with Arcuri between 2006 and 2007.

 

“I didn’t know Mr. Arcuri,” said Cliche, a former Quebec environment minister in the 1990s who was working for Groupe S.M. International when he was contracted by the city parks department.

“He wanted to develop it or sell it at a price that seemed at the time higher than its fair market value.”

 

The Rivière à l’Orme runs through undeveloped land located in the middle of the L’Anse-à-l’Orme Nature Park in western Pierrefonds

Friday, June 26, 2015. Peter McCabe / Montreal Gazette

 

Cliche said he filed a report with the parks department explaining that he had settled with all of the owners except Arcuri.

 

(A parcel of land less than four hectares, tucked between a corner of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev property and Gouin also appears will remain private. The owner, whose address is in Jordan, could not be reached for comment.)

 

“And then my mandate ended,” Cliche said, adding that the discussions with Arcuri were cordial.

 

“I learned subsequently in reading the newspapers that he had maybe a reputation other than for being a property owner.”

 

Between 2009 and 2011, the city contracted the Quebec branch of Ducks Unlimited, a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving wetlands for waterfowl, to contact the Pierrefonds landowners to complete the acquisition of their lands. Some of the owners made an ecological donation of land, which earned them a tax credit.

 

A representative of Ducks Unlimited met with Arcuri in July 2009, said its Quebec director Bernard Filion. And he said he personally met Arcuri once, at the group meeting organized by the city.

 

Arcuri “had very high expectations,” Filion said. Ducks Unlimited had an expert’s opinion assessing the land’s value at $800,000, he said. Arcuri wanted triple or quadruple that, Filion said.

 

“There wasn’t even a negotiation. He said his price, and we said no, it’s too expensive.

 

“It happens. There are sites we can’t acquire because the owners are too greedy.”

 

Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev paid $1.89 million for the property in 1988, which would have taken into account that half of it can’t be developed because the province had declared the portion below the river as protected agricultural land in 1978.

 

The more land an owner can develop unfettered, the more it’s worth, Filion said.

 

A big factor that would influence the value of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land is how far the lines of Quebec’s floodplain map, which can either restrict or prohibit construction, are drawn on the non-agricultural portion between L’Anse-à-l’Orme River and Gouin, he said.

 

Filion said Arcuri told Ducks Unlimited in 2009 that he disagreed with where provincial and municipal authorities drew the floodplain, and that’s why he maintained the property was worth more than $800,000.

 

The other factor affecting the land’s value is how much can be developed under municipal zoning rules.

 

But the city’s position on that is contradictory.

 

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 a new zoning category to be created to allow residential construction up to 10 storeys.

 

In fact, the urban plan showed the tip near Gouin, between Lauzon and Rose-Marie Sts., was already zoned for one- to two-storey construction.

 

The residential vocation was reiterated in an updated map in the urban plan in 2007.

 

But the Tremblay administration also publicly pledged to conserve 180 hectares of western Pierrefonds. It produced a map in August 2006 showing all of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land inside the future eco-territory.

 

A February 2011 map for the project also shows the full Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land inside the eco-territory.

 

Most of western Pierrefonds is natural space, including forests and wetlands.

 

The eco-territory is the companion project — or, some argue, the consolation prize — of another plan that has percolated behind closed doors for years, which calls for residential development on another 180 hectares of nature, adjacent to the eco-territory.

 

Mayor Denis Coderre announced Friday that the city is moving ahead with the development zone and eco-territory as presented in its 2015 land-use plan, and will allow a group of developers to construct 5,000 to 6,000 housing units inside the development zone.

 

The developers are among the owners who ceded land to the city inside the eco-territory.

 

Meanwhile, Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough has blocked Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev from developing its land. A 2009 letter to the Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec from a lawyer for Manchester Brighton said the company requested a zoning change for residential development in 2005. The borough didn’t refuse or approve the request, it said — it simply didn’t answer.

 

The letter also said the city was being secretive about its plans for the land, and expressed concern the property would be expropriated at a derisory price while the city gives a privileged group of developers the right to build adjacent housing.

 

Having private land in the eco-territory could undermine the conservation project, said David Fletcher, a spokesperson for the Green Coalition, which also opposes the city’s 50-50 development-conservation model that seems to be in vogue in Quebec.

 

Related

 

 

• Rival factions in recent Mafia war linked to Pierrefonds property
  

 

It’s hard to fathom how the city will manage a public nature reserve with private property in it — especially if it’s developed, Fletcher said. “I think that would be a real problem. We’re aware of that strip. Somehow it has to be brought into the fold. It has to be acquired.”

 

However, Cliche said he believes the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land can never be developed, even if the city doesn’t acquire it.

 

“Well, good luck,” he said, noting that most of the land is floodplain or zoned for agriculture.

 

Moreover, “they’re hemmed in, surrounded by land to be conserved,” he said.

 

Since 2013, Cliche has been working for some of the developers whose land he negotiated to acquire while working for the city. He’s been registered to lobby Montreal and Transport Quebec for the developers’ side for zoning and road access in the development zone.

 

“The city could use its power to expropriate,” Ducks Unlimited’s Filion said of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev land.

 

“They (the city) saw there were holes. I’d imagine they’re capable of saying ‘If it’s not for sale do we want (to expropriate)’? They know their power, more than us.”

 

In fact, Terrebonne, north of Montreal, said in June it would expropriate land from holdout owners for a similar 50-50 residential-conservation project.

 

In a final wrinkle, the Coderre administration’s new land-use plan not only leaves the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev property unprotected, it marks a chunk of it near Gouin for residential development. But in what appears to be another contradiction from the city, a map with the eco-territory zone that Coderre and other city officials presented on Friday shows all of the Manchester Brighton/Uni-Dev strip shaded green for conservation.

 

So is the city going to wreck the value of an owner’s land by hemming it in and blocking its development? Or is it going to make its owner richer by allowing the land to have the only new residences that can be built inside a 180-hectare nature reserve?

 

Time will tell.

 

lgyulai@montrealgazette.com

twitter.com/CityHallReport

[MontréalYul]

Quel projet atroce. Cette zone naturelle est une des dernières à Montréal. Il faut à tout prix la conserver. De plus, la congestion est atroce sur St Charles le matin, ceci ne va pas aider. Quel manque de vision.

 

Il n'y a aucune nouvelles infrastructures dans l'ouest depuis desdes anneeaannées et on continue d'ajouter du monde.

[acpnc]

Quand la corruption s'installe dans un endroit, elle peut dormir longtemps avant de s'éveiller au moment opportun. Ainsi l'appât du gain devient la seule motivation en bout de processus. Tout ce qui compte est de vendre au maximum du prix et tant pis si c'est contraire à la logique du développement durable ou anti-écologique. Puisque ces gens n'ont absolument aucune conscience sociale, ce sont des pourris tout simplement. Il faudra pourtant que la communauté sorte gagnante de cette bataille inadmissible, car les enjeux sont considérables et laisser-faire ne devrait même pas être une option à envisager.

[Gabmtl]

http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/montreal/201506/29/01-4881889-pas-de-developpement-dans-lecoterritoire-de-pierrefonds.php

 

Pas de développement dans l'«écoterritoire» de Pierrefonds

 

L'administration Coderre affirme qu'elle a l'intention de bloquer toute tentative de développement immobilier sur un terrain appartenant à des gens liés à la mafia situé au sein d'un nouvel «écoterritoire» à Pierrefonds. Selon l'opposition officielle, la Ville se place en situation pour se faire poursuivre.

 

Vendredi dernier, le maire Denis Coderre a dévoilé son plan de développement pour un secteur de 400 hectares situé dans l'extrémité ouest de l'arrondissement Pierrefonds-Roxborro. Il avait alors qualifié d'«exceptionnel» le fait de dévoiler un projet qui prévoyait à la fois un ensemble résidentiel de plus de 5000 logements et un projet de conservation de 180 hectares.

 

Or, le quotidien anglophone The Gazette révélait ce matin qu'une bande de 28,5 hectares à l'intérieur de cet «écoterritoire» baptisé L'Anse-à-L'Orme appartenait à deux compagnies dont les actionnaires ont des liens avec le crime organisé: Placements Manchester Brighton Ltée et Gestion de Placements Uni-Dev. Par ailleurs, la portion nord du terrain privé est présentement zonée résidentielle.

 

«Nous n'avons pas besoin d'être propriétaires de ces terrains-là pour les protéger», a déclaré cet après-midi Russel Copeman, responsable des dossiers d'urbanisme au sein de l'administration Coderre. «Parce que c'est inclus à l'intérieur de l'écoterritoire et parce que c'est identifié à conserver dans le schéma d'aménagement, tous les outils sont là pour que ça reste non développé», a-t-il ajouté.

 

La Ville s'expose-t-elle à des poursuites? «Il y a toutes sortes d'éventualités. La volonté de l'administration est ferme, il n'y aura pas de développement sur ce terrain-là», a-t-il répondu lors d'une mêlée de presse à l'hôtel de ville.

 

Le zonage du terrain relève ultimement de l'arrondissement Pierrefonds-Roxborro, qui n'a pas retourné notre appel.

 

Pour l'instant, la Ville de Montréal rejette l'idée d'exproprier, car il s'agit d'une voie trop coûteuse, dit M. Copeman.

 

Entre 2009 et 2011, c'est la branche québécoise de l'OBNL Canards illimité qui a été mandatée par la Ville pour approcher les propriétaires des terrains dans la zone ciblée à devenir l'écoterritoire.

 

«Les discussions ont été rompues en 2009 parce que le prix demandé pour l'achat des terrains était jugé déraisonnable par la Ville de Montréal», a dit M. Copeman. «L'administration ne fera pas des discussions avec des gens qui ont présumément des liens avec le crime organisé. Il n'y aura pas de discussions avec eux tout court.»

 

Le chef de Projet Montréal, Luc Ferrandez, s'est montré très critique. «Il y a trois cartes dans le schéma d'aménagement qui disent le contraire de ce que M. Copeman dit. Voilà de l'amateurisme à son plus haut niveau», a-t-il déclaré.

 

«Sur une des cartes, on voit apparaître un lotissement résidentiel. Comment la Ville a pu faire une erreur de cette importance-là? À mon avis, ils donnent tous les arguments légaux aux promoteurs pour se faire poursuivre», a-t-il ajouté.

[nephersir7]

The Gazette a une carte qui illustre bien de quels terrains on parle:

 

 

 

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/coderre-administration-says-it-will-block-mafia-linked-pierrefonds-land-from-development