Construction of a 44-storey residential tower – the tallest outside of downtown Montreal – is progressing visibly on Île-des-Sœurs, much to the dismay of some residents there. see the beginning of a wild densification.
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“I cry when I see that,” drops Bernard Tessier, who has lived on the island located in the southwest of Montreal for 50 years.
The Symphonia Viu project promises to be the tallest tower on Île-des-Soeurs with extraordinary views. It is part of a complex of five buildings ranging from 13 to 44 floors.
Mr. Tessier denounces the “hyperdensification” of the Island which will host this spring a station of the Metropolitan Express Network (REM).
“It’s going to be a lot of people, a lot of traffic,” laments the retired engineer, who has long been a member of the Association of Resident Owners of Île-des-Sœurs.
Densification raises many issues, as reported a published file saturday in The newspaper on the implications of increasing Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100.
No limits
“It hurts my eyes,” admits the mayor of Verdun, Marie-Andrée Mauger, about the tower under construction.
The elected representative of Projet Montréal explains that the borough had to deal with regulations that did not impose a height limit in the past.
In 2005, there were talks of six 18-storey towers, but the zoning was not changed accordingly.
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In the last ten years, the developer has therefore been able to move forward with five much higher towers. The last of the project, which will be 42 stories high, was reluctantly approved by the borough council last year. Its construction has not yet started.
“If we refused this permit, it would have been necessary to provide for a lawsuit”, underlines Mme Mauger.
Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montreal / QMI Agency
There was no height limit when the project was approved last year.
Lack of services
There will eventually be 1,000 new residents in the Pointe-Sud district of Île-des-Sœurs.
But this is not the only area under development, since many projects are underway at Pointe-Nord, near the future REM station.
“This is where we should find the heights, not at Pointe-Sud,” says Mme Mauger.
The one who says she has never advocated development in height rallied to a template of 78 meters high around the future station, much less than the more than 100 meters of the Symphonia Viu tower.
No matter the height, Bernard Tessier, fears that the services do not follow. “Condos are springing up like mushrooms, but we don’t have 3e school, and you have to take your car to get a pint of milk, ”he illustrates.