The tenacious ideal of the suburbs

Regardless of traffic jams or global warming, the lure of the suburban single-family home, with its private yard, remains irresistible to many. Even more so with telework which seems to be here for good. Even if it is often necessary to go farther and farther to have access to it. Is the attachment to this way of life immutable?

Simon Chabot
The Press

Critics rain down on the suburbs. Urban sprawl is expensive in terms of infrastructure and increases polluting travel, at a time when the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) is urgently needed to limit global warming. The new neighborhoods sprouting up far from the city are also threatening the last natural and agricultural environments in southern Quebec.

Scientists are unanimous: sustainable development requires the densification of already inhabited areas. By the end, in short, of the residential suburbs made up of single-family homes as far as the eye can see.

However, even if the future of the planet worries more and more the population, the suburbs continue to expand again and again around the big cities.

This is evident in Greater Montreal. From 2016 to 2021, the population of the outer suburbs, which is at least 30 minutes from the city center, grew by nearly 65,000 people (+ 7%), according to Statistics Canada, much faster than the urban periphery. and the suburbs located closer.

Synonym of comfort and success

How to explain this unfailing attraction?

For decades, governments, banks and advertisers have favored the suburbs and their undivided single-family homes, recalls Sébastien Lord, professor of urban planning at the Faculty of Planning at the University of Montreal and director of the Ivanhoé Cambridge Observatory.

“It has long been said that progress and modernity are in the suburbs, not in the city,” says Mr. Lord. This is still the norm today in Quebec. »

The situation is not unique to Quebec. Almost everywhere in the world, even in Europe, the house alone, surrounded by greenery in a quiet area, is synonymous with comfort and success. The classic suburb remains an ideal, a social status to be achieved.

And a social norm cannot be changed by shouting “densification”! Especially since the home shapes everyday life and “touches on intimacy, on identity”, explains Professor Lord. And that the emotional ties with his living environment “gain in sentimental weight” over time. “When you have lived for years and years in the suburbs, studies show that you tend to choose the suburbs again when you move”, illustrates the one who also has a training in architecture.

“There is an irrational and animal relationship to one’s space, to one’s own property, which one wants to personalize, observes for her part Jennifer Bennis, partner of the architectural firm L’ŒUF, known in particular for her projects of innovative housing. It’s as if the space we have for living was a reflection of who we are. The opinion of others is of enormous importance. To make a change, you will have to find the reflection of success in something other than the suburbs…”

Hands off my suburb

Since the attachment to one’s living environment is strong, any potential change raises fears. “Intervening in a neighborhood means touching a lot of sensitive chords”, observes Sébastien Lord. Does the addition of housing in a suburb mean the massive arrival of strangers? The loss of green spaces? More traffic problems? A decrease in property values?

“If you invest all your savings, and you make big sacrifices for years to pay, then renovate your house, sums up Mr. Lord, you don’t want to take any risks: you don’t want things to change. »

No wonder then that the idea of ​​transforming the suburbs arouses outcry. In Saint-Lambert, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Pointe-Claire or Montréal-Nord, for example, tower projects have been rejected and candidates have been elected on their promise to limit or even stop the densification.

Paradoxically, the “threat” of densification hanging over the suburbs, however necessary it may be, seems to consolidate the attachment of some to this way of life.

And the effects of the pandemic too. The perpetuation of telework in part of the economy reduces travel needs and makes remote suburbs more attractive.

Always further

Installed in his secondary residence in the Laurentians since the start of the pandemic with his spouse, Michel Lavallée wishes to sell his row house in Lachine. “The city, for us, was a compromise, because we wasted too much time on the road, it was a nightmare, says the man who lived in Laval for a long time, where he also grew up. With telework, we no longer have to travel as much. As our secondary house does not suit us as a main residence, we want to return to the suburbs, where we will have space, peace and some privacy. »

The 60-year-old computer scientist, on the verge of retirement, would ideally see himself in a bungalow, “a natural, even cultural choice” for him. His next property will undoubtedly be in the northern crown, neither too close to the city to avoid the crowds and traffic jams, nor too far to keep in touch with family and friends.

Michel Lavallée says he is in favor of the concept of densification, but considers that it is generally badly planned, to the point of being repulsive. “It’s too often chicken shacks,” he said. If I had to, I could consider living in a condo in a quiet area, but public transit would have to be efficient, which is rarely the case in the suburbs, even when it’s dense. »

“I have a lot of customers who have sold downtown to go to Chambly or even Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, notes broker Gonzalo Nuñez, of Engel & Völkers. For them, buying a single-family home is a question of space and quality of life. In a couple, she can work upstairs and he, in the basement… which is not possible in a small condo. »

The further one moves away from the city center, the less the reign of single-family homes seems threatened. For now, municipalities located outside the Montreal Metropolitan Community, such as Marieville on the South Shore or Saint-Lin in the Laurentians, do not meet the mandatory density threshold to limit urban sprawl. To meet demand, as land becomes scarce closer to the city, developers no longer hesitate to launch projects for single-family neighborhoods in Farnham or Cowansville, in the Eastern Townships, at least an hour’s drive away. from Montreal.

Unwavering loyalty?

Comfort, quality of life, space… the arguments of the single-family home are difficult to counter in thinking about the future of the suburbs. Sébastien Lord nevertheless believes it is possible to reconcile the aspirations of some and the needs of the whole planet.

The evolution – and densification – of the suburbs must take into account what people want to find there, such as private spaces, greenery, tranquillity. “We can’t do without what they have in mind, what makes up their identity,” says the professor.

The solution, he believes, is through quality designs. Thus, a condo building with large terraces sheltered from view and surrounded by trees will appeal to a certain number of suburbanites… especially if they are a little tired of maintaining their huge land.

The needs and perceptions of the population also change over time, which will have an impact on the suburbs of tomorrow. An aging population could thus find greater security in an area dense enough to support effective home care services.

As the effects of global warming disrupt everyone’s daily lives, people will re-evaluate their individual choices, adds the architect of L’ŒUF. A green lawn is less socially acceptable when drinking water is scarce.

Public authorities should nevertheless provide good guides now on the real cost and impact of an energy-intensive lifestyle in order to orient people properly, believes Jennifer Bennis. “If in 10 years my house burns down because the heat waves will be so strong that everything will catch fire,” she says, “maybe it’s not worth it today to choose the suburbs. »

To glimpse the future of the suburbs, Sébastien Lord is very interested in millennials… and their somewhat different social standards.

Like their elders, the youngest want to become owners to enrich themselves, and the lower prices in the suburbs could seduce them. But unlike baby boomers, says Sébastien Lord, millennials project themselves more on a bus with their phone than at the wheel of a car for their travels. “Those who grew up in traffic will undoubtedly have a different relationship to the city and to densification. Thus, millennials may find their happiness more often in housing accessible by public transit than in a single-family home dozens of kilometers from the city.