The new Saint-Bruno administration has just adopted an urban development plan for 2022-2026. Prepared on the sly, this document goes against all logic concerning yet major and current issues: housing crisis, densification, urban sprawl, gentrification, environment and revitalization of city centers.
Posted yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
Thus, it prohibits any construction exceeding two floors in the city center. Without appeal, without prior consultation and without resorting to expert advisors, the team of Mayor Ludovic Grisé Farand has decided.
Barely six months after taking power, she is making a clean sweep of the vast planning work carried out during the reign of ex-mayor Martin Murray and hailed everywhere for its foresight and relevance. Many real estate files, both under study and already approved, could therefore become null and void and inadmissible.
City center sacrificed
What reason is given for radically paralyzing a key sector – and including all services within walking distance – by suddenly depriving it of affordable housing that respects urban planning standards? The fear of affecting its cachet! However, part of this character comes precisely from the harmonious cohabitation of buildings of two, three or four floors.
Even crazier, the plan qualifies downtown Saint-Bruno… as a village core. As if it were a historic village of yesteryear or a resort!
In addition, the city center is not saturated in terms of real estate, because many land remains available to settle families there, which would energize the district, its shops, businesses, restaurants, etc.
Unexplainable and unjustifiable choice
The Grisé Farand administration wishes instead to develop land adjacent to the distant Promenades Saint-Bruno, six kilometers from the city center. While there is unanimity on the need for densification, the mayor is retrogradely betting on urban sprawl. Regardless of the social, economic and environmental consequences.
In the era of food autonomy, Saint-Bruno will sacrifice fertile agricultural land to erect condo towers along Highway 116. And when it comes to buying local, the mayor favors the major foreign banners present at Promenades Saint-Bruno and the shops of Saint-Hubert, one kilometer from the project. He thus turns his back on entrepreneurs and merchants who give a soul to his city and make Montarvillois work.
Abandoned families
The Planning Advisory Committee had already given its approval to various real estate projects offering dozens of affordable housing units near businesses and basic services. We are not talking here about massive condo towers, but about accessible housing, in symbiosis with the sector concerned.
With his controversial approach, Mayor Grisé Farand will isolate families in an area where pedestrian travel is unthinkable and where the polluting car is essential. And by restricting new construction in the city center, Saint-Bruno will create a scarcity and cause a new sectoral increase in rents to the detriment of citizens.
Cities like Sherbrooke, Granby, Drummondville, Gatineau, Laval and Longueuil are committed to stimulating urban densification in a context of sustainable development. Why does Saint-Bruno remain stuck in the 1970s while retaining the obsolete and harmful mode of urban sprawl?