The development project which is to see the light of day on the grounds of the old Montreal racecourse is stalling, estimates the opposition to the city hall, which is calling on the Plante administration to draw up an overall plan. for the site so as to accelerate the construction of housing.
There was a time when horses “went around in circles” on the racetrack, recalled Tuesday Alan DeSousa, mayor of the borough of Saint-Laurent and member of Ensemble Montreal. From now on, it is the Plante administration that is going in circles with the development of this site, he said.
Last September, the City launched a call for tenders to find an NPO that would acquire land for $4.5 million in order to build affordable housing. An organization’s bid would have been accepted, but the transaction has not yet been finalized.
The second call for tenders, launched in October, aimed instead to find a real estate developer ready to buy a lot for 10 million and build housing there, 60% of which would be affordable. However, no bids were received, testifying to the lack of appeal of the City’s proposal.
A necessary development plan
According to Alan DeSousa, the absence of underground infrastructure and a precise plan for the entire site puts off real estate developers, especially since the lots put up for sale represent only a tiny part of the 43.5 hectare site. “We need to know exactly where the streets and public services are going to be, such as parks, water and sewer infrastructure and social housing,” he said on Tuesday. “Knowing that, we will be able to quantify the amounts [requis]. »
According to him, reaching an agreement with the other levels of government for infrastructure funding would reassure real estate developers. The City should also plan investments for these infrastructures in its ten-year capital plan, he notes.
It is in this context that Ensemble Montréal will present a motion at the May 15 city council meeting. This motion calls on the administration to submit a Special Planning Program (PPU) for the site as of September and to mandate the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) to carry out a consultation this subject. An agreement on an investment plan with Quebec and Ottawa would accelerate the development of the site, says the opposition.
Financing infrastructure
While the asking price for the lot offered to developers may have discouraged some, Jean-Marc Fournier, CEO of the Urban Development Institute (IDU), believes that the constraints imposed by the City and above all, the he absence of an overall plan for the development of the site has cooled the promoters. “It’s not easy to make up your mind when you don’t know what’s going to happen next, on 96% of the site,” he underlines.
The site has no underground infrastructure. To remedy this, the City could conclude an agreement with Quebec so that the government assumes part of the necessary investments, even if the City pays it part of the property taxes collected during the first years, he says.
“I know that for cities, it is not a reflex to share their revenues. But right now, the City of Montreal does not! he says. At the end of the contract, the City could recover all of its property revenues, points out Mr. Fournier.
According to him, a new development pact between the City and the government of Quebec — and perhaps even Ottawa — would be beneficial because sites such as Namur-Hippodrome, Bridge-Bonaventure and certain sectors of eastern Montreal are called to become “proximity neighborhoods of the future”. “The racecourse site belongs to the City. We cannot say that it is the promoters who are delaying the project,” he says. “And in the case of the hippodrome, there is already a metro station nearby. »
Discussion with Minister Duranceau
Mayor Valérie Plante assures us that the racetrack file is “moving forward”. “It’s a concerted vision between the City of Montreal and the Government of Quebec. And we want to work with the whole ecosystem, ”she commented on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a press conference on summer pedestrian streets.
The City has not yet relaunched the call for tenders for developers. The mayoress, however, indicated that the Namur-Hippodrome file was on the menu of her discussions with the Minister responsible for Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, two weeks ago. “Both the Minister and I want things to move as quickly as possible, even if there are major issues such as the cost of infrastructure. »
In 2012, the Quebec government agreed to transfer the racetrack site to the City of Montreal. In exchange, half of the revenue generated by the sale of plots of land to developers was to be paid to the government. It took five years for the sale to materialize, but no housing has yet emerged.
With Zacharie Goudreault