Merchants’ associations fear that regulatory changes aimed at tackling the housing crisis in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal will have the boomerang effect of creating increased cohabitation problems between merchants and residents, which could harm the cultural scene. and nightlife of the district, noted The duty.
On March 11, a moratorium was put in place on conversions of housing into businesses throughout the district, which wishes to prohibit these following regulatory changes currently under study. The borough thus aims in particular to prevent the addition of housing intended to be rented for commercial purposes on Airbnb-type platforms on the sections of rue Saint-Denis and boulevard Saint-Laurent where these tourist residences have been permitted since 2019. Airbnb-type accommodations already present in these sectors may, however, continue to be operated.
Commercial vitality
“If that were to happen, we would put the very DNA of rue Saint-Denis at risk,” says in an interview with Duty the general director of the Commercial Development Company (SDC) of rue Saint-Denis, Julien Vaillancourt Laliberté. The latter fears that due to these regulatory changes, more owners will decide to instead convert commercial premises into tourist residences, a practice which will always be permitted, but which would have the effect of reducing the number of businesses on these important arteries of the city. metropolis. On Rue Saint-Denis, 16% of commercial premises are currently vacant, which raises fears of an “irreversible” conversion of some of them into housing, he notes.
“Someone who has an office and who would transform it into housing, well after that, it will be over. This accommodation can never again become an office,” warns Mr. Vaillancourt Laliberté.
The general director of the SDC on rue Saint-Denis also fears a deterioration in cohabitation between housing tenants and owners of bars and performance halls in Plateau-Mont-Royal. Already, several cultural institutions, such as the Divan orange and La Vitrola performance halls, as well as the social club Le Scaphandre, have had to close their doors in recent years after falling prey to repeated complaints from neighbors inconvenienced by the noise. A phenomenon which could worsen if more businesses are transformed into housing in the most vibrant – and nocturnal – sectors of the borough, warns Julien Vaillancourt Laliberté.
“The entire cultural aspect is not taken into account in this type of project,” he laments, referring to the regulatory changes planned in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal.
The general director of the SDC of avenue du Mont-Royal, Claude Rainville, deplores for his part, like his counterpart on rue Saint-Denis, not having been consulted in recent weeks by the borough on these modifications future. “It would have been good if we had discussions in advance with the administration to know the ins and outs,” says the one who wonders if these regulatory changes are not proposed to “compensate for the lack of teeth of the regulations aimed at countering illegal Airbnbs” put in place by the City.
Financial repercussions
“It shakes me up a lot, because I was counting on that to get through it,” says Laurence Nadeau. The Montrealer owns a three-story building on Saint-Denis Street which has a commercial ground floor and eight small rental units. For months, she has struggled to find a merchant interested in her premises on the ground floor, while three of her apartments on the upper floors are vacant or will soon be. It is these three accommodations that the owner had started to paint and furnish to make tourist residences, before the borough informed her in the last few days that a moratorium on this type of conversions is in progress.
“I’m trying to make this building self-sufficient, but even for it to be self-sufficient, at the moment, that doesn’t fit,” notes M.me Nadeau, who says the apartments in his building are too small to be attractive for long-term tenants. In this context, she is considering converting her commercial premises into housing, but this time comes up against the district’s requirements in terms of protecting built heritage, she says.
Conditional use
The district assures for its part that owners wishing to convert accommodation into a business, a category which includes tourist residences, will be able to do so in certain cases, even if these transformations will be prohibited by operation of law, by making a conditional use request. . They will then have to pay several thousand dollars to have their project studied by borough officials, without having a guarantee that it will be accepted. If this is the case, they will then be able to request the required permits to make their project a reality.
“It will still be possible to do it under conditional use in certain cases, if it is accommodation above a bar, for example,” explains to Duty the person responsible for supporting elected officials from Plateau-Mont-Royal, Julien Deschênes. However, these will be exceptional cases, as the district wishes to limit as much as possible the reduction in the number of rental housing units on its territory. “We are losing housing by the shovelful, so we are trying to limit losses while creating new housing,” says Mr. Deschênes.
These regulatory changes could come into effect within a few months.