Consultations with citizens are essential to improve real estate projects and ensure their social acceptability, but the City must better coordinate its various services to accelerate the realization of these, believes the president of Prével, Laurence Vincent. Otherwise, more promoters could turn to the suburbs, warns the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM).
The duty met on Wednesday Mme Vincent on the sidelines of the inauguration of an indoor public space that the real estate group has decided to make accessible to residents and organizations in the area at the heart of the huge Esplanade Cartier real estate project. This site will also have a community garden. Ultimately, the construction of a maximum of 2,000 housing units is planned on a huge 400,000 square foot lot acquired in 2019 by Prével in the Centre-Sud district.
Last year, the construction of the first phase of the project began, followed more recently by the second. Residential buildings will eventually stand alongside a central park and a public square, all included in this same real estate project. The developer, who conducted his own consultations with residents of the sector in parallel with those of the City on the Faubourgs sector, has however been confronted in recent years with the bureaucratic heaviness of the City, which has slowed down the realization of this project.
“I wouldn’t say these are impediments, but it’s so complex and the City has so many departments that don’t always talk to each other that it’s difficult to get a project going. Especially a large-scale project which has much more complexity than a project which is a single building”, illustrates Mme vincent. However, each time a request has to go from one service to another, “there are delays”, adds the one who succeeded her father last year at the head of Prével, one of the largest real estate groups. of the metropolis.
In order to lighten this “tedious process”, Mme Vincent mentions the possibility of having a “project manager” at the City who could facilitate the coordination of its various entities, and therefore speed up the decision-making process. “If the City wants innovative projects, we must be accompanied by a decision-making power that is capable of allowing this innovation,” insists the businesswoman, according to whom there are “a lot of changes to be made” within the City.
Prevent an exodus
However, public consultations should not be skipped over to speed up projects, says Ms.me vincent. However, she mentions the possibility of “continuing to consult” the population while projects are being carried out. The project will thus be able to move forward and “evolve” over the steps taken to collect public opinion on it. “We would like to make plans by consulting”, she illustrates.
Because “if we wait until we have consulted and finished planning a project, it will take 10 years [avant de construire] and we may no longer be connected to the best practices of the moment”, launches Mme vincent. The case of the Esplanade Cartier is also interesting in this sense, she notes, since the construction of its first two phases is in progress at the time when the planning of the subsequent phases continues on this site.
The President and Chief Executive Officer of the CCMM, Michel Leblanc, also believes that the City has lessons to learn from the evolution of this real estate project, which offers a compelling view of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in order to put an end to the « obstacle course » that many promoters have to go through to make their project a reality. Otherwise, more and more of them will turn to the suburbs, he warns.
“What we have seen in recent years is that developers have systematically bought land outside the territory of the island of Montreal. And what that means is that the promoters have all given themselves options: if it’s complicated to do projects in Montreal, they will do projects outside the island of Montreal, “says he in interview.
“The key” available to developers, so that their projects materialize in the metropolis, is to “get involved very early” to consult citizens, “as Prével did” in the case of the Esplanade Cartier, for its part, notes the adviser to Projet Montréal in Ville-Marie Sophie Mauzerolle. Thus, “we make sure to have projects that are interesting for the promoters”, but also that “fit well” in their neighborhood, she adds in an interview with the To have to.
The Esplanade Cartier project will also include some 200 social housing units, indicates Ms.me Vincent, who notes however that the public funds intended for such housing are clearly insufficient, at the present time, to meet the needs of the metropolis. “It takes public money, otherwise we can’t get by,” insists the businesswoman, as the start of the provincial election campaign approaches this Sunday.
“We would like there to be social housing everywhere, answers Mme Mauzerolle. That being said, there is no more money for new units. »