Do as I say, not as I do.
This is, roughly, the avenue chosen by Quebec for the development of its “hospital of the future” in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, west of Montreal. The $2.6 billion facility will be state-of-the-art, but all around it will be a throwback to the 1960s.
To reduce the bill, Quebec revised its initial plans. Parking will not be underground or even elevated. Rather: on the surface. An ocean of concrete, the size of five football fields, built on wasteland agricultural land.
The City, the Chamber of Commerce, the MRC, the Union of Municipalities: all the authorities have been in dire straits since the announcement of this change. But now we learn, from the writing of my colleague Ariane Krol, that the Montérégie Regional Public Health Department has also issued a serious warning.
Not because of the ugliness of this parking lot or its anachronistic appearance.
No: this sea of bitumen will constitute a gigantic heat island, harmful both for the environment and for the health of humans nearby. Humans who are more and more numerous, since the Vaudreuil-Dorion region is experiencing an unprecedented demographic boom.
By making this short-sighted decision, the Quebec government is violating one of the major principles of its National architecture and land use planning policyunveiled no later than June 2023.
At the heart of this policy is the State’s duty to set an example.
I quote an extract from the implementation plan: “The State plays a structuring role in the development of territories and the built environment. The government is thus committed to putting in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure the sustainability of its interventions as well as the strengthening of expertise within the various ministries and organizations concerned. »
In the case of the giant parking lot at the Vaudreuil hospital, the “mechanisms” existed, but they were ignored. Just like the “expertise” of the ministries involved, obviously.
As for the “durability of the interventions”, everything will depend on the quality of the bitumen used. If it is as poor as the one used on the roads, the lifespan of mega parking could be quite short.
IMAGE TAKEN FROM THE VAUDREUIL-SOULANGES HOSPITAL SITE
A synthetic image of the future Vaudreuil hospital and its parking lot.
Bad joke aside, Quebec is failing in its duty to set an example across the board. Even if the reason given – saving 50 million on parking rather than in the hospital itself – can be understood, from an accounting point of view.
It remains a penny-pinching economy, deplorable from an environmental perspective and terrible from an urban planning perspective. The 1000 trees which will be planted here and there in the car park will not make Vaudreuil feel any better.
This decision is all the more astonishing because it goes exactly the opposite of everything that has been recommended by experts (and the government) for years in terms of urban planning.
The trend is towards densification and conversion of surface parking lots. We try, at least in the private sector, to make every square meter profitable. By burying, where possible, or by erecting layered structures that are as compact as possible.
There is a project in this direction in Quartier DIX30, in Brossard, on the South Shore of Montreal. The owner wants to replace 10,000 parking spaces with 4,000 housing units1.
Same scenario at the Galeries d’Anjou, in the east of the island. A portion of the enormous parking lot will be transformed into a residential area, where the final station of the blue metro line will end. We are talking about 10,000 homes, eventually! Ditto at the Fleur de Lys shopping center in Quebec, where 3,500 apartments are planned2.
There is resistance in other places, like Pointe-Claire.
The West Island municipality opposes densification in the Fairview Pointe-Claire center megaparking lot, where there is a Réseau express métropolitain (REM) station.3. The model chosen by Quebec for the Vaudreuil hospital, a few kilometers away, will certainly not encourage Mayor Tim Thomas to change his mind…
Exemplary, I said.
There is no need to look far to find another fresh case of the lack of exemplarity of the Quebec state.
The future Île-aux-Tourtes bridge, also located a few kilometers from Vaudreuil, will not have lanes reserved exclusively for public transportation.
There will also be no space reserved on the deck for a possible extension of the REM, whose terminal station is nearby. A 2.3 billion project that is “aberrant and inconceivable,” denounced the mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Guy Pilon4.
This marginal place given to public transport is in fact incomprehensible.
Because if CDPQ Infra, the promoter of the REM, does not currently plan to extend its light rail to Vaudreuil-Dorion, this could become necessary in 10, 15 or 20 years. The region is growing at breakneck speed, after all. And the health of the planet is not improving…
But hey, why build for the future when you can ignore the problem today?
“We’ll see when we get there. » The new motto of Quebec.
1. Read “Real estate: “The DIX30 is ripe for evolution””
2. Read “The future Fleur de Lys district revealed”
3. Read the column “Urban densification: 50 shades of gray (and bickering)”
4. Read “New Île-aux-Tourtes bridge The project is “aberrant” for public transportation, says a mayor”