Councillor says Montreal is just too timid on social housing in Bridge-Bonaventure

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An area councillor says the Plante administration’s new grasp plan for a long-ignored space within the metropolis’s south finish doesn’t go far sufficient in serving to Montrealers who’re struggling to afford their houses.

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Almost 4 years within the making, the proposed grasp plan for the two.3-square-kilometre Bridge-Bonaventure sector — which now consists principally of commercial buildings — was offered by the town’s govt committee final week.

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The realm covers the area south of Griffintown, and contains Cité du Havre, the western fringe of Previous Montreal and the world between the Victoria and Champlain Bridges.

The plan, which is anticipated to be the topic of hearings in entrance of the Workplace de session publique de Montréal later this 12 months, foresees two stations of the REM, 7,600 housing items, the addition of 12 kilometres of motorcycle paths and 5 kilometres of public shoreline entry.

It additionally requires 20 per cent of the items to be reserved for social housing, 20 per cent for households, and one other 20 per cent for reasonably priced housing, according to the town’s 20-20-20 bylaw.

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Craig Sauvé, the unbiased councillor representing Pointe-St-Charles and Griffintown, mentioned the plan lacks ambition on the subject of reserving land for social housing items, with Montreal within the throes of an affordability disaster.

“There are a number of good components of the plan, however I believe we actually need to have affordability baked into this plan,” Sauvé mentioned. “Early on, you must have that land in hand, with a view to foresee affordability. I don’t need to miss this chance for the Peel Basin.”

Talking to reporters Wednesday at metropolis corridor, Mayor Valérie Plante was pessimistic concerning the probability of social housing items being constructed within the sector, due to the provincial authorities’s reluctance to fund them. The town’s plan requires 1,500 social housing items to be constructed.

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“After we see that solely 200 social housing items have been funded since 2019, it worries us,” Plante mentioned.

Sauvé mentioned he agreed with the mayor’s pessimism, however mentioned there are measures the town needs to be taking now with a view to reserve land for social housing items to be constructed ultimately. He identified that the provincial and federal governments personal a big swath of land within the Peel Basin and the town needs to be working to accumulate that land, even when it isn’t certain the place the funding to construct the items will come from, as it would possible take between 10 and 15 years to construct out the brand new neighbourhood.

“It’s fairly clear the town wasn’t capable of make Griffintown as reasonably priced because it may very well be,” Sauvé mentioned. “We misplaced the chance to accumulate lands for social housing there.”

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Neighborhood activist Karine Triollet agreed the town’s targets needs to be extra formidable, and referred to as on all federal and provincial land to be saved out of what she referred to as the speculative actual property market. In any other case she fears there might be a repetition of the Griffintown expertise.

“We will’t proceed the sort of improvement, mentioned Triollet, co-ordinator of Motion-Gardien, a collective of neighborhood organizations with the objective of bettering dwelling situations in Pointe-St-Charles. “We’d like neighbourhoods which are really inclusive, that folks can keep in for the long run.”

She additionally referred to as on the town to place in place an answer to the world’s visitors chaos, by obliging transit visitors to bypass Bridge and Wellington Sts.

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Robert Beaudry, the manager committee member answerable for city planning, mentioned an anchoring public transit mission might be key to any future improvement within the space. He mentioned he hopes CDPQ Infra, which is constructing the REM, will add a station there. At present, solely the Griffintown—Bernard-Landry station is within the plans for the world. Including one other would require negotiations with the provincial authorities and CDPQ Infra.

“We’re assured that there might be a station there,” Beaudry mentioned. “It’s important. Everyone seems to be behind it, and for us it’s a precedence to develop there.”

Sauvé mentioned transit is one other component that must be improved within the grasp plan. He mentioned with good transit serving the world, this is able to be an ideal alternative to construct a car-free neighbourhood.

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Requested to remark, CDPQ Infra spokesperson Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau mentioned it’s too quickly to speak about including stations to the $7-billion-plus mission, which is slated to start service later this 12 months.

“Our precedence is to place into service the reference mission of the REM with its 67 kilometres and 26 stations,” Rouillard-Moreau mentioned. “Any modification to the scope of the mission have to be completed inside the framework of the collaboration between the Quebec authorities and CDPQ Infra.”

Reacting to the plan, the town’s opposition mentioned it’s happy the Plante administration elected to spice up the housing portion of the mission from the unique proposal. Nevertheless, it mentioned, hinging improvement on a theoretical transit station isn’t sensible.

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“We’re glad to see that the Plante administration modified their thoughts on the Bridge-Bonaventure housing mission by growing the proposed density from 3,800 items to 7,600 items,” mentioned Julien Hénault-Ratelle, Ensemble Montréal spokesperson for financial improvement. “We’re additionally in favour of an extra REM station. Nevertheless, we discover it stunning and unreasonable that no talks with CDPQ Infra have been held up to now.

“When you will have such a large-scale mission that you’re decided to see come to mild, you don’t simply present REM ultimatums that may threat jeopardizing the complete improvement. That is simply not how an administration ought to negotiate.”

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