After hours and hours of work and exhaustive public consultation sessions this summer, the Pointe Claire council unanimously adopted the new urban plan at the council meeting on Monday, Nov. 15.
Pointe Claire’s last planning program was adopted in 1989 but due to the 2001 merger, it was replaced by the Montreal Master Plan which remained in place after Pointe Claire’s reconstitution in 2006. The council chose not to recognize this plan and the city developed a new program for 2010, a plan that will develop Pointe Claire over the next ten years.
“There’s a conscious effort made to create areas that are for smaller homes, for younger families so that the demographics of the city can go down instead of go up,” said Mayor Bill McMurchie. “We need more families with children.”
The planning program takes into consideration the demographic issue but also considers the need for renovated infrastructure to deal with the population growth as well as the increased awareness in environmental sustainability.
“The last Planning Programme dates back 20 years,” it is stated in the plan. “Since the adoption of this programme, the Pointe Claire that had developed at the end of the 1960s around highway interchanges, shopping centres and a vast industrial park started growing around a thriving City Centre and a Civic Centre that gradually became a focal point for community activities. This Planning Programme therefore proposes recognizing the reality of these two poles and reinforcing their respective functions.”
The plan calls for more development of the city centre around the Fairview shopping centre and St. John’s Boulevard as well as the Civic Centre which includes city hall and the library. While 5.2 hectares next to Bob Birnie Arena and the Malcom-Knox Aquatic Centre is still vacant, the plan is to develop 1.4 hectares of that wooded land into a multi-purpose community centre.
The plan is not concrete, however. Changes won’t occur overnight and developments outlined in the plan are propositions.
“The urban plan is a long-term vision,” said McMurchie. “The changes that will be seen that will result from the urban plan are the changes that will take place as Pointe Claire develops in the next few years.”
McMurchie used the example of bicycle paths. The plan calls for a marked increase in bicycle paths connecting the Civic Centre with the city centre, making Pointe Claire more bicycle-friendly.
“Some of the (bicycle paths) are just lines on a map and they may always remain lines on a map,” he told The Chronicle. “In the event that money becomes available and the need for that type of path is made known, we will allocate money to that.”
It’s not all rosy
Not everybody was happy with the adopted planning programme, however. Claude Arsenault, the president of la Société pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine de Pointe Claire, felt his voice was not heard at the public consultation meetings.
It was noted that the zoning for the Noel Legault community centre at 245 Lakeshore Boulevard in the Pointe Claire Village and the Canada Post building across the street had been changed in the plan from public to mixed use. Citizens at the council meeting expressed concern with this zoning change and whether it would lead to the eventual closing of the centre.
“The zoning in that area right now (of public use) could eventually be changed, in the future, to a zoning of commercial or residential use,” said Pointe Claire’s Director General, Jean-Denis Jacob.
Arsenault told council that a number of citizens, including himself, spoke at the consultation process about their concern with this zoning change.
“These two centres give services to our population,” he said.
“You are giving one example of when council did not take into account your personal comments,” replied McMurchie. “There were other cases in the consultations that the council listened to the comments or modified changes according to certain comments. Concerning the Noel Legault centre and the post office, the zoning will not change until these owners sell their businesses. Until then, it will remain public zoning.”
