Tough times in Pointe Claire Village

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

Pointe Claire needs to think about rescinding its bylaw requiring new restaurants or pubs in the Village to furnish a certain amount of private parking spaces for its customers, Pointe Claire Village merchants say.

For Capricorn Glass Works owner Sylvie Brunet, the closure of destination businesses such as L’Ami de l’Artisan and Euro-Deli Café have contributed to the lack of traffic in her Ste. Anne Street shop and a marked decline in business.

“It’s terrible,” she said. “This year has just been terrible. I’ve had a 40-to-50-per-cent decline since the first year I bought the store three years ago, if not more.”

Her store, she said, is so quiet that some days, not a single potential customer is coming through the door.

“There’s nobody coming in, and with my business taxes being so high, it’s tough for me to get by,” she said.

Brunet lamented the lack of indications to Highway 20 drivers about the Village and its attractions.

“There’s nothing on the highway or around that says ‘come to the Village,’” she said. The government sign on the highway should indicate that we are here. A sign, an announcement, anything. In the summer, it’s beautiful here, and I don’t think enough people know about it.”

Westmount Florist owner Peter Pickrell concurred, saying the city’s parking-space bylaw is too strict to attract new hospitality businesses to the Village — and that with the public lots, there’s plenty of space to park.

“We don’t have a parking problem in Pointe Claire Village,” he said. “In any case, restaurants only start to fill up after 5 p.m., which is when many of the merchants close up anyway. It’s probably a rule that needs to be changed.”

Pickrell mused the addition of a pub, a Thai or Indian restaurant and/or a farmers’ market might attract more people —- and their money — to the Village.

“I’ve heard from a lot of merchants that things aren’t going well, and I’m hearing that stores might have to close. That would be a shame. I think there’s a lot of potential here,” he added.

The first order of business from Pointe Claire’s end is to get a new business onto the vacant lot at the corner of Cartier

and Lakeshore avenues, Mayor Bill

McMurchie said.

The city held a public consultation concerning the lot’s zoning last week.

“We’d like to see some sort of mixed residential/commercial on that property, because it’s considered key by our planning team,” he said. The site, which effectively serves as a western gateway to the Village, should naturally bring traffic up Cartier Avenue if properly laid out, he added. The land’s owners have put the property up for sale.

“We’d like to help development of the Village by bringing it up Cartier Avenue (from Lakeshore Road). “Hopefully, whatever we have going in there will blend with that configuration,” he said.