The golf courses of the greater Montreal area are prized by real estate developers who wish to carry out dense projects in the heart of the municipalities concerned. But many of them resist, against all odds, in the name of environmental protection and access to green spaces.
The weather was mild and the golden hues were at their peak when the To have to, Friday, near the immense grounds of the Club de golf de Beloeil, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. Located in the heart of this city in the southern suburbs of Montreal, this large green space is particularly close to a shopping center and a quiet residential area.
“It’s a nice green space. People can go snowshoeing in winter, cross-country skiing, we can go walking,” lists Paule Maloney, a resident of Beloeil crossed on a sidewalk that runs along this site.
However, the future of this golf course is uncertain, its owners accusing a heavy debt. A promoter has tried, in recent years, to get approval for a project providing for the construction of approximately 200 housing units for the elderly on a plot equivalent to 5% of the golf course. However, he received a dismissal from the former municipal administration. The mayor in office since November 2021, Nadine Viau, also rejects the possibility of changing the zoning authorized in the “green lung of Beloeil”.
“I thought it was opening the door to something we didn’t want,” explains Mme Viau, according to whom such authorization would have had the effect of encouraging other promoters to covet the rest of the site.
“We save time”
For the past few months, the Beloeil golf course has been included among the green spaces protected by an interim control regulation of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM). This measure ensures the protection of the vocation of the site until 2025, when the new Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan of the CMM will come into force.
Thus, “we save time to find a solution” as to the future of this land, summarizes Mme Viau. The mayoress would like to financially help the owners of the golf course so that they continue to operate it, but the means of the City are limited. “We search and we search to see how [les propriétaires du golf] could reduce their debt,” but the city’s capacity is limited, she says with a sigh.
“In the end, it’s the citizen who will pay,” says promoter Danny Cleary, who remains hopeful of convincing the City of Beloeil to let his real estate project see the light of day on this golf course. This development, he stresses, would be a “win” for everyone. “It made it possible to keep the green space at 100%, at zero cost for the citizens and, in addition, there is a significant lack of housing for retired people in Beloeil”, he argues. He specifies that his project concerns the driving range of the golf course and does not plan to encroach on the rest of the course.
“A golf club, just maintaining it, is a lot of money,” says resident Réal Bernier, who regrets that the City opposes the realization of a real estate project on this site, when we “lack of affordable housing” in Beloeil. However, many residents disagree.
This made it possible to keep the green space at 100%, at zero cost for the citizens and, in addition, there is a significant lack of housing for retired people in Beloeil.
“Since I live next to the course, I like the view of the trees better than that of another seniors’ residence,” says Claude Marchand, a mother I met near the said golf course. Other citizens abound in this direction. “I understand that it’s a big contribution of taxes for the cities, the golf courses which are sold and which bring rows of onions of condos, also believes Michel Chartier. Now, right in the center of Beloeil, I think it’s visionary to think that people are taking advantage of this green space. »
Too late for La Prairie
In the municipality of La Prairie, the mayor, Frédéric Galantai, would have liked to protect the golf course in his corner of Montérégie. However, it is too late: a real estate project of more than 2,200 houses, approved by the former municipal administration in 2017, then by the Ministry of the Environment last year, is under construction on this site. And the City can do nothing about it, even if this project results in the cutting of many trees and does not benefit from any “social acceptability”, according to Mr. Galantai.
“We are inundated with calls from people who are devastated because the promoter, in his own right, went to shave between 1,000 and 1,200 trees, and it was an extremely hard blow for the citizens,” adds the elected official. “As mayor, my hands are tied. I have a duty to respect the agreements that have been signed,” he says.
One of the promoters at the origin of this real estate project, Luc Poirier, affirms for his part that his project provides for the planting of a number of trees much higher than those which will have been cut to carry out this development. “The reality is that there will be more trees after than before,” he said in an interview.
Meanwhile, in Candiac, the City wishes to acquire a golf course in the area which, despite the municipal administration’s clear refusal to change the zoning of this site, has been acquired by Groupe Boda, a promoter who wishes to build housing on this site. And this, even if this land is part of the green spaces temporarily protected by the interim control regulations of the CMM.
“We are continuing our efforts and, if we do not have an agreement by mutual agreement for the acquisition, we will look at the option of expropriation”, confides the mayor of Candiac, Normand Dyotte. However, to do this, Quebec will have to revise the Expropriation Act to reduce the amount that municipalities must return to expropriated developers, in addition to financially assisting cities wishing to protect their green spaces, explains the mayor.
In the northern suburbs of Montreal, the City of Lorraine has also taken steps in the hope of acquiring the golf course from the municipality, which is also under pressure from real estate developers. “We want golf to remain golf. So, if we buy it, we are the ones who will decide,” notes its mayor, Jean Comtois.
find a balance
Despite the “rich” ecological value of several golf courses – especially those abandoned – it is unlikely to think of being able to protect all of these green spaces, believes Gérard Beaudet, professor at the School of Urban Planning and in landscape architecture from the University of Montreal.
We want golf to remain golf. So, if we buy it, we are the ones who will decide.
“Ideally, in a world where we would be able to grow money in trees, we could buy them massively and say, now, these are green spaces that participate in a metropolitan network for the protection of green spaces. But we are not in that world, ”says the expert. The latter believes that cities should consider allowing certain real estate projects on part of the golf courses, but on the condition that they are strictly supervised in order to limit their impact on the environment.
“These are strategies where we try to combine perspectives of safeguarding the environment with perspectives of development, where we can somehow make one and the other play in duo”, he adds.