Community set to battle City Hall

Around 15 people sat around a community center table in Little Burgundy. Students, seniors and a couple urban planners have come out on a cold Wednesday night to discuss the proposed redevelopment of nearby Griffintown. They worry that if it goes ahead, they’ll lose their homes.

Around 15 people sat around a community center table in Little Burgundy. Students, seniors and a couple urban planners have come out on a cold Wednesday night to discuss the proposed redevelopment of nearby Griffintown. They worry that if it goes ahead, they’ll lose their homes.
According to the South-West Borough government, Griffintown is one of Montreal’s first suburbs.
It is bordered by the Bonaventure Autoroute and Georges-Vanier in the east and west respectively, and between Notre-Dame and the Lachine Canal in the north and south.
Throughout the 19th century Griffintown was home to many of Montreal’s new, especially Irish, immigrants.
These immigrants worked for little pay, building the Lachine canal and the Victoria Bridge, and later found work in the neighbourhood’s many factories.
But the closing of most of these factories in the 1960’s and 70’s left portions of the area largely abandoned and in disrepair.
The new plan to redevelop the neighbourhood put forward by the city of Montreal and development company Devimco would force the area’s remaining residents out of their homes.

The Masterplan

The proposed development covers over 200,000 square meters in the South-West corner of the neighbourhood. Steven Peck, who completed his masters by studying the area, said the development “covers the heart of Griffintown.” The city’s “Programme particulier d’urbanisme” (P.P.U.), which was released last week, gives broad outlines and approval of the development plans.
According to a Devimco press release, the project intends to create “about 3,900 residential units” as well, 18 percent of the area being redeveloped – over one million square feet – will become commercial space. Devimco hopes to attract European big box stores like Ikea to the neighbourhood.
While the city touts the project as the revitalization of a dying neighbourhood, Peck is not convinced.
“We don’t need condo towers or shopping malls,” he said, worrying that the large scale demolition will destroy many of the area’s historic buildings.
Moreover, development will close several streets and create several new ones which Peck said is his most major concern: the area’s street grid hasn’t changed since the late 1700’s.
The cost of the redevelopment being a hefty $1.3 billion, residents don’t know how the money will be allocated – Devimco has yet to release an official plan to the public. According to Chris Gobeil, who started the Committee for the Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown, “it’s changing on the fly.” While Devimco has shown several designs none of them were actual plans for the development.
“They’re just drafts,” said Gobeil.
Of particular concern to Gobeil is the fact that the entire area planned for redevelopment will be sold to Devimco.
“No one from Montreal is ever going to own that land again,” he said, adding that even condo owners in the new development will not own the land that their condos are built on. Provincial law allows cities to expropriate land (without the owners’ consent) for development, as long as the land is in the “city center” and a developer has two-thirds of the land under option (a right to buy the land in the future at a previously agreed upon price).
Devimco has already obtained the required two-thirds and the city is willing to expropriate the rest, according to Gobeil. The P.P.U. also includes plans to expropriate some of the land to widen the street.
While the residents at this meeting didn’t seem quite sure what they wanted – this was the first meeting of the Committee for the Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown – they know what they don’t want.
“If this development goes ahead,” said Concordia student Chris Erb, “I’ll lose my house.”
The Little Burgundy Coalition is holding a public discussion on the Griffintown Project Tuesday, Feb. 12 at the Centre-Culturel Georges-Vanier, on Workman Street near Charlevoix, where Urban studies professors Pierre Gauthier from Concordia and David Hanna from UQAM will be speaking on the issue.
The official redevelopment plan will be revealed to the public on Feb. 21, at Ecole de technologie superieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Street West, at 7 p.m.

Public consultations will be held by the City of Montreal at Ecole de technologie superieure on March 10, at 7 p.m.

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