Are real estate developers and the City of Montreal condemned to disagree? The president of Prével, Laurence Vincent, judges for her part that the bureaucratic heaviness of the municipal apparatus transforms the realization of real estate projects in the metropolis into a “station of the cross”.
“The public authorities have become constraint machines,” summarizes Laurence Vincent, who emptied his heart during the Strategic Forum on major projects organized on Friday by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal at the Palais des Congrès.
The businesswoman recounted the laborious progress of the Esplanade Cartier project that Prével wishes to carry out in the Centre-Sud district, at the foot of the Jacques-Cartier bridge. The real estate complex provides up to 2,000 residential units, local businesses, shared streets, a central park, an urban agriculture project, in addition to hosting the Women’s Y house.
A “way of the cross”
In the fall of 2018, Prével acquired a huge concrete lot of 400,000 square feet. Laurence Vincent argues that his company, sensitive to the issues of cohabitation, conducted local consultations and carefully developed its project.
But such an “exemplary project” does not guarantee rapid approval from the authorities, she stressed, citing three major obstacles: the very long processing times for applications, the “political fear of density” and the syndrome “not in my backyard” which “allows a few citizens to deprive thousands of others of housing”.
Laurence Vincent is angry with the City for having reduced the authorized heights and limited the floor areas allowed in the special urban planning program (PPU) for the Faubourgs despite the favorable reception of the Office de consultation publique de Montréal regarding these elements. Tossed from one City service to another, the company even risks having to comply with a referendum process, she lamented.
“The problem comes from administrative rigidity”, she criticized the City for imposing a “stations of the cross” on promoters rather than considering them as “true partners”. “It will take a change of culture and a lot of political courage to succeed in providing housing that meets the needs of our metropolis. […] I believe we have to do better, especially in the midst of a housing crisis. »
In passing, she points out that Prével took care to protect the views of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in his plans. “And after putting so much effort, we hold our breath because there may be an REM [Réseau express métropolitain] which will pass to cut off the view that we had worked so hard to preserve. »
Laurence Vincent’s exasperation is reminiscent of that expressed recently by real estate developers involved in the development of the Bridge-Bonaventure sector. In a joint statement, the representatives of Devimco, Groupe Mach and COPRIM had criticized the City for not listening to them and for doing its own thing in the planning of this sector by reducing the permitted densities, which which they say will not make construction projects profitable. “The private sector is kept aside, gagged, demonized”, protested Serge Goulet, president of Devimco.
Facilitate dialogue
Present at the event, the person in charge of economic development on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Luc Rabouin, recalled that the City was working on setting up a “facilitating cell” to support promoters in the development of real estate projects. This unit, which has already begun its work, brings together representatives of city services, members of the Urban Development Institute of Quebec (IDU) and real estate developers.
“We know that the processes are laborious”, recognized the chosen one. “We really discuss our vision of things in order to establish a channel of communication because, sometimes, we have difficulty understanding each other. We have already analyzed the main difficulties”.
Luc Rabouin maintains that an action plan will be tabled in the fall. According to him, real estate developers want to know, earlier in the process of developing their projects, the expectations of the City so as not to find themselves, after years of preparation, facing new obstacles with the feeling of wasted their time. “We have to find ways to talk to each other from the start,” he insists, while emphasizing the need for elected officials to protect themselves from lobbying activities.