Litigation around the golf of Anjou | Major setback for the park project

Justice has just inflicted a setback on the Plante administration and its desire to transform the Anjou golf course into a park, giving the first green light to 12 industrial and commercial construction projects on site.

The Superior Court ruled that municipal officials must study these permit applications, which the metropolis has refused to do for months.

The company that owns the huge land “has an acquired right to continue processing its permit applications,” judge Gabrielle Brochu ruled in a decision dated last week. Metropolitan Golf of Anjou Inc. belongs to the DiLillo family, which operates in construction and real estate.

On February 24, 2022, the Plante administration had taken the first step in rezoning the golf course from “industrial” to “park”, thus fulfilling an electoral commitment. Since that date, all construction on the golf course has been “frozen”.

But two days earlier, on February 22, 2022, the owners of the land had overtaken the City by submitting 12 building permit applications to the borough, reveals the court decision. The decision does not detail the nature of the planned buildings, except that they are “commercial and industrial” buildings.

“The permit applications filed are complete and compliant,” said Judge Brochu, dismissing an argument from the City’s lawyers that some documents were missing at the time of filing. Montreal must therefore continue to study the permits. Metropolitan Golf of Anjou does not, however, enjoy an acquired right to the permits themselves, said the magistrate.

The Plante administration does not rule out appealing the decision.

Members of the DiLillo family declined to comment on the matter. “Since the appeal deadline has not yet expired, we must refrain from commenting on the decision rendered,” said the communications manager of their law firm, Nadine Ishac.

A protection “improvised”

The Anjou golf course, located between the Metropolitan highway and Henri-Bourassa boulevard, has long been at the center of a showdown between supporters of its protection and promoters of its development. Mayor Valérie Plante is in the first camp, Borough Mayor Luis Miranda in the second.

This is a potentially contaminated former industrial site, which its owners have decided to grass and exploit by turning it into a golf course.

In 2020, the DiLillo family reduced the course from 18 to 9 holes to develop part of it. A Costco warehouse has notably settled on the former greens, as has a food distributor and a company manufacturing wooden pallets.

The 12 new construction projects would constitute a second phase of development.

In February 2022, the borough mayor Luis Miranda already warned that the protection of the golf course was coming too late and was “improvised”.

“The site was under development,” he said at the time. “There are at least two buildings and five other projects in progress” in the area to be protected, he said.

But the Plante administration does not hear it that way.

“It is our duty as a responsible administration to take the right steps for the future of our population,” said Valérie Plante’s cabinet in writing. “The courses of the Club de Golf Métropolitain Anjou represent unique places and the last traces of greenery in this sector. »