Saint-Lin-Laurentides has barely 25,000 inhabitants. That did not prevent the small municipality from giving a lesson in urban planning 101 to the Legault government.
Hopefully he took notes.
What is happening in Lanaudière concerns the entire province. The new mayor of Saint-Lin, Mathieu Maisonneuve, threw a stone into the pond by making remarks… really sensible.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Mathieu Maisonneuve, Mayor of Saint-Lin-Laurentides
He wants to reverse the agricultural dezoning of 7 hectares orchestrated a few years ago by the local MRC with the unjustifiable agreement of Quebec.
He says he wants to develop his city within the current urban perimeter rather than sacrificing agricultural land to build businesses there.
He says that in the long term, the protection of the territory will bring more to its citizens than tax revenue in the short term.
And he warns those who have bought land speculating that it will one day be dezoned and sold to developers that his role is not to make them win their bet.
These words are refreshing and courageous.
Mathieu Maisonneuve articulates an intelligent and modern vision of land use planning in an area known to have done precisely the opposite in recent years.
In 2019, the MRC de Montcalm, where Saint-Lin-Laurentides is located, asked to change the vocation of 160 hectares of agricultural land, the equivalent of 220 football fields, essentially to develop houses and businesses there.
We recognize here the too well-known scenario of unbridled development. Developers are putting pressure on elected officials to dezone agricultural land and erect their fields of bungalows there. Enticed by the new taxes, the elected officials embark.
Unfortunately, we know where this leads: to the loss of agricultural land and natural habitats. To urban sprawl, to real estate development far from public transport networks, to cars that will increase traffic jams.
Quebec should clearly have refused this revision of the development plan of the MRC de Montcalm. Its own experts, from three departments, recommended it.
But the government lacked courage and allowed it. At the time, we denounced this approval.
Today, the mayor of Saint-Lin-Laurentides wants to return to the initial plan and maintain agricultural zoning in his city. One would have thought that it would cause sparks in the region. Not even !
On Wednesday, the MRC unanimously adopted a resolution which not only receives Saint-Lin’s proposal concerning the 7 hectares, but also undertakes to review the entire development plan for its territory in order to reflect ” a strong vision for the protection of natural environments and agricultural land”.
What we see there is a complete disavowal of the old game plan which relied on dezoning and which had received the approval of Quebec. Such a reversal is embarrassing for the provincial government. It shows to what extent the latter has abdicated his responsibilities and left to others the task of protecting the territory.
It is not normal for it to be the mayor of a small town who sets himself up as a bulwark against ill-considered decisions coming from above.
Quebec adopted its national architecture and planning policy last summer. It affirms the importance of “countering the loss of natural environments and agricultural land” and “directing urban growth towards environments already equipped with infrastructures and public services, in the heart of our villages and our cities”. .
This is exactly what Saint-Lin and the MRC de Montcalm advocate today… and precisely the opposite of what Quebec authorized in the region in 2019.
We are now awaiting the Legault government’s action plan which will articulate this national policy. Let’s hope that, this time, the actions will follow the words.