Twists and turns in the land of private alleys

Who owns the alleys? A priori, to the municipalities. But on closer inspection, we see that some of them, in whole or in part, fall within the private domain or other entities. We have unearthed, after twists and turns, many special cases. Follow the signs.

Sylvain Sarrazin
Press

“The parks are the real heart of Montreal, along with the alleys,” launched our columnist Patrick Lagacé in the wake of the municipal elections. It is indisputable, the alleys forge the identity of our cities, particularly in Montreal and Quebec. Playgrounds, green spaces or semi-abandoned passages: there is something for everyone. And sometimes with a touch of bitterness.

One fine morning, residents of the Ahuntsic district woke up with a very unpleasant surprise: they learned that a portion of their lane was in fact private, that it had just changed hands and that the new owner intended block access, community media reported this fall Neighbors Journal. After a standoff between the residents and the owner, and checks carried out by the borough, the latter finally let it be known that the right of way on this portion and access to the backyards were indeed maintained.

Read the article from Neighbors Journal

This case, certainly exceptional, raises the question of the status of the alleys. Are there other non-municipal segments in the city? Yes : Press identified several privatized sections in Montreal. How many in all? Impossible to know, since “the City of Montreal does not keep a register counting the number of public and private alleys on its territory”, teaches us Hugo Bourgoin, public relations officer for the municipality.

Citizen requests

In Montreal, a procedure exists so that residents can ask the City to acquire them. But beware, this is not a question of selling off the alleys: the process is only intended to “regularize certain situations, and under certain conditions”, specifies the request form.

For example, there may be enclaves or dead ends, possibly occupied de facto by fences or gardens. If the request receives the approval of the Property Management and Planning Department, a petition signed by at least two-thirds of the owners concerned may be presented to the municipal council, which will decide. About fifty such requests are made each year, says Bourgoin, and most of those that meet the conditions imposed are accepted. A public utility easement is however created during the cession, preventing “temporary or permanent construction in the part of the ceded lane”.

The interest of the City? Formalize certain situations, for example a historically constituted occupation, which may concern isolated or cul-de-sac alleys and deemed “not required for public purposes”.

Also: allow better maintenance of these areas and, by the band, “increase property tax revenues”.

Consult all the conditions required for the acquisition of an alley in Montreal

When the City takes the lead

Does the initiative for privatization still lie with the residents? Not necessarily. Francis Brien, residing in Pointe-aux-Trembles, received a year and a half ago, like his neighbors, a letter from the City proposing to him the transfer of a parcel of lane adjacent to his yard, 5 feet by 75 feet approximately.

In the cadastre, we actually see the existence of a strip of public land. But in fact, it’s been a long time since the passage is neither accessible nor useful for public purposes. From neighborhood memory, we do not even remember having ever seen an alley at this location. “It was never an alley. There might have been an option to do one, but they never did. The surrender does not change much. We’ll see if that makes a difference in the tax bill at the end of the year, ”says the owner who has lived in the neighborhood for ten years. What if he had refused the City’s offer? “The plot would have been offered to my neighbor in the back,” he says.

Likewise, on the Saint-Laurent borough side, four alleys were ceded to residents between 2014 and 2018, divided into small lots and attached to adjacent residential areas.

Contrasting cases

By searching for portions of private alleys, many special cases have been found.

In Verdun, privatized plots have, for example, put branches in the wheels of greening projects. Thus, the local green alleys committee, which wanted to carry out improvements and open up two passages to parks, in 2020 came up against the reluctance of owners, who owned a single segment at the end of the alleys.

“The owners came to the brainstorming process to mention that this portion belonged to them and that we could not intervene. The problem was, the alley committee wanted to create a link between the alley and the park. Otherwise, we have to go around to go to the park, because of a fence, ”laments Luis Gomez, coordinator of the green lanes program in the Southwest.

Elsewhere, some alleys belong to private companies, as is currently the case for the Ahuntsic alley mentioned above, where residents had to fight to keep their right of way.

In Parc-Extension, residents were surprised at the vagueness surrounding the status of their country lane, not far from Jarry Park, when the felling of an imposing and diseased ash tree became necessary: ​​the pruner did not know how to who pass the bill on.

“We don’t really know who owns it anymore. When I bought my duplex, even the notary was not able to determine it, ”explains one of the residents contacted.

“When we contacted the City, we were told that the alley was not municipal, but the federal government,” adds the latter. The real estate developer of the time, at the end of the XIX^e, had bought the whole lot, but subsequently went bankrupt. »Contacted by Press, the borough of Villeray – Saint-Michel – Parc-Extension has confirmed that the lane in question is indeed the property of the federal government, and not its own.

We find a similar situation in the Limoilou district, in Quebec, where the alleys are generally under the jurisdiction of Revenu Quebec. The Transition Quebec party had also indicated its intention to bring them back into the municipal fold as part of the municipal election campaign.