another griffintown? development battle brewing in fast-growing c.d.n.-n.d.g. neighbourhood
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tudor diaconu, left, and nicholas reich are on the condo board of rouge 5 and rouge 6, 12-storey buildings across the street from the proposed complex. "we're not fighting growth, we’re fighting excess," diaconu said. the height of the project would block the view of mount royal and st. joseph's oratory for those condos.
allen mcinnis
/
montreal gazette
the municipal election in november ushered in a new administration in côte-des-neiges—notre-dame-de-grâce borough, but it hasn’t settled a development battle that started brewing in the triangle neighbourhood this summer.
residents say they’re on tenterhooks waiting on the new ensemble montréal administration to give a sign of how it will respond to a developer’s proposal to erect an apartment complex with about 570 units. the proposed site at de la savane st. and victoria ave. is a parking lot that the city had a right of first refusal on to build social housing that it cancelled just before the election.
the project by groupe mach, which calls for two 17-storey towers and two other buildings of nine and six storeys, was fast-tracked by the borough’s previous projet montréal administration. the latter held a public consultation on it in august and had planned to vote on final approval in september.
however, a large number of area residents turned up at the consultation to oppose the project. gracia kasoki katahwa, the borough mayor at the time, then met with residents and postponed the final decision on the project until after the election.
groupe mach told the gazette last week that it’s in discussion with the borough civil service to revise the building volume and density and the number of social and affordable housing units to be included in the development.
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“as the process is underway and several elements are still being reviewed with the borough, it would be premature to provide details on the exact types of buildings, the final number of units, or their breakdown, including social and affordable housing,” said sylvie rousseau, director of marketing and communications for groupe mach.
but whatever the modifications, residents contend that any new high-density housing development will compound what is already wrong in the triangle: overcrowding; traffic jams; deficient underground water infrastructure; a shortage of parks, green space and small shops; and an absence of schools and recreation facilities.
“we need better urban planning,” said marc-étienne lévesque, an administrator on the board of rouge 1, an eight-storey condo building across the street from the proposed project. triangle residents launched a petition against the project.
municipal authorities should build the greenery and services that were promised when the triangle began taking shape 15 years ago, lévesque said, and not just cram the neighbourhood with highrises to create another griffintown.
“we are not against development and densification — we are against abusive construction without proper evaluation and studying the long-term impact on the neighbourhood and its infrastructure,” he said. if the borough permits the triangle’s tallest and most densely built project to date when the neighbourhood already lacks services, it “will push little families like mine to simply move away.”
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ensemble montréal city councillor sonny moroz, who won re-election in the district that encompasses the triangle, told the gazette he opposes a complex of towers in light of the residents’ objections.
“the social acceptability is not there,” he said.
however, it’s unclear where his party colleagues stand on groupe mach’s proposal or their standards for development.
“we have not yet made a decision on this matter,” chiara wipfli, a spokesperson for mayor soraya martinez ferrada, said of the project. the gazette contacted city hall after leaving several unanswered messages for newly elected c.d.n.-n.d.g. borough mayor stéphanie valenzuela.
the triangle, named for its shape, was conceived as a large-scale urban renewal of a low-income neighbourhood that had tracts of unused land between jean-talon st. w., de la savane and mountain sights ave.
following a design competition around 2011, the city presented the triangle as montreal’s first transit-oriented development since the area abuts the namur and de la savane métro stations. the city set a target of 4,200 housing units in medium-rise buildings, 30 per cent of which were supposed to be social housing.
about 3,500 units have mushroomed in the neighbourhood in recent years. however, promises of schools, parks and other “quality public spaces,” recreation facilities and the vaunted “significant proportion of social housing” have gone unfulfilled.
alexandra ghantous and marc-Étienne lévesque are opposed to a proposed complex that would be about double the height of the rouge condos behind them.
allen mcinnis
/
montreal gazette
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during a whistle-stop in the neighbourhood in the election campaign, katahwa and projet montréal mayoral candidate luc rabouin repeated a long-standing promise that an elementary school would be built on paré st., even though the quebec education ministry froze that project late last year. the ministry tells the gazette the school project remains on indefinite hold.
moreover, namur métro station is jam-packed, while bus service is poor and car traffic abounds, said alexandra ghantous, who lives in a house one street over from the site of groupe mach’s proposed complex. victoria floods during heavy rainstorms, she added.
“we’re talking about overcrowding,” she said. “can the neighbourhood support another 570 families? you can’t cram so many people in. we have to breathe a little.”
car traffic and demand on the métro station can only increase, ghantous added, because the city is also planning more high-density development — lots of it — in the surrounding area.
for example, the city has a target to build up to 20,000 units on the former blue bonnets hippodrome site on the other side of décarie blvd.
as well, projet montréal introduced amendments to the urban plan last year that increase density and height limits surrounding the triangle. that includes the south side of jean-talon st. w., where the changes approved last year now permit up to 20 storeys.
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“we’re not fighting growth, we’re fighting excess,” said tudor diaconu, an administrator on the condo board of rouge 5 and rouge 6, 12-storey buildings across the street from where the city now allows up to 20 storeys. such a height would block the view of mount royal and st. joseph’s oratory for condos along the north side of jean-talon.
“montreal must densify with vision, humanity and respect for its neighbourhoods, not surrender them to reckless overdevelopment,” diaconu said.
triangle residents told a borough public consultation on the urban plan changes in 2024 that 20-storey buildings are better suited in the as yet undeveloped blue bonnets hippodrome site.
“density and development alone are not sufficient,” said nicholas reich, another administrator of the condo board.
“the balance with infrastructure and local services is critical to sustainable neighbourhood quality.”
the residents are also critical of all municipal administrations going back a decade for not integrating social housing into the triangle’s development.
the proposed site at de la savane st. and victoria ave. is a parking lot.
allen mcinnis
/
montreal gazette
the last administration, led by former mayor valérie plante, had registered a pre-emptive right on the parking lot at de la savane and victoria in 2020, which gave the city a legal right to purchase it for social housing ahead of any buyer.
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but the city didn’t exercise its right of first refusal when the property and an adjacent three-storey office building were acquired in 2022 by a company, édifice 4700 de la savane inc., of which groupe mach president vincent chiara is president. and this past august, the plante administration cancelled the city’s pre-emptive right on the parking lot.
the parking lot has a long-term, or emphyteutic, lease on it that runs to 2046 with a renewal option to 2066. the city says it wasn’t aware of it when it registered the pre-emptive right in 2020 — even though the emphyteutic lease is in the land registry.
the city “was subsequently informed” of the lease, city spokesperson camille bégin said.
the law concerning a municipality’s power to register a pre-emptive right is “open to interpretation,” she said, and “the city of montreal believes it cannot exercise its right of first refusal on a long-term lease.”
besides, bégin said, the city wants to own, not lease, the land it cedes to non-profit housing organizations.
édifice 4700 de la savane inc. acquired the lease rights to the parking lot and purchased the adjacent office building under the $7.5-million sales deed signed in 2022.
groupe mach’s rousseau said the company has since bought up the ownership shares of each of the parking lot’s 14 owners who were leasing out the parking lot.
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bégin said the city considered it “preferable to waive the right of first refusal on this lot” in 2025 given the long-term lease. “in the context of the housing crisis, the city wants to focus on projects with faster development opportunities.”
the city never registered a pre-emptive right on the adjacent office building, she said, because it appeared at the time that it would be too expensive to purchase and the property presented “significant redevelopment challenges.”
the quebec municipal affairs ministry told the gazette that the question of whether a municipality can exercise a pre-emptive right on a long-term lease would be up to the courts to decide.
“the right of first refusal regime provided for in municipal laws is more suited to cases of total alienation, that is, the sale of a building,” it said.
“for transfers of rights such as long-term leases, certain obstacles could make it difficult to apply the right of pre-emption.”
the previous projet montréal administration fast-tracked the groupe mach project using a quebec law that grants municipalities temporary power to speed up approval and bypass a local referendum for social housing projects.
the borough’s documents presenting the groupe mach project in august didn’t specify how many social and affordable units were planned. one document said that 8,712 square metres of the 43,354-square-metre gross floor area would be the “social or affordable portion.”
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moroz, for one, said he is committed to “consult properly” on the future of the parking lot, adding that it’s part of a broader debate about quality of life and avoiding high turnover in the neighbourhood.
“what we want is someone living there for 30 years. that’s how you keep things affordable,” moroz said.
“if there are no green spaces, no parking, no school, no commercial artery with a nice little coffee shop and no street life … they’re going to move out.”
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