The Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal is opening a second round of consultations about the redevelopment of old CN yards in Pointe St. Charles this weekend. Pointe St. Charles residents are gaining a reputation as one of the most active and organized communities in the city, ensuring that accessible housing, local jobs, public transit, environmental considerations, and waterfront access remain on the radar.
Two years ago, Groupe Mach, had plans to develop a big-box retail centre similar to Marché Central but the necessary zoning changes were not approved. In September 2008, they came back with a new plan which would re-use some of the site’s historic buildings to attract new light industrial activity, and integrate a component of residential development.
Mach is working with residential developer Cardinal-Hardy who have proposed what looks like a sensible approach to housing. Their design would connect to the existing neighbourhood in both grid and form.
Proposed residential density: pale yellow = 2-3 stories; bright yellow = 4-6 stories. Black lines represent back alleyways. From Group Cardinal Hardy, REDÉVELOPPEMENT DU SECTEUR DES ANCIENS ATELIERS DU CN (pdf).
The site would also maintain some of its traditional function as a rail yard, through agreements with the AMT and CN (although its not clear how a recent fire will affect the AMT’s plans for a train maintenance centre on the site). Furthermore, the Société du Havre is involved as the site’s use could impact the future plans for the Bonaventure expressway.
With all these thumbs in the pie, its a little overwhelming to try and untangle the project at this phase. Fortunately several Pointe St. Charles community groups have been closely involved in the public consultation process for years, and have even proposed some plans of their own (pdf).
These groups include local Economic Development Organization, RÉSO; Housing advocates Bâtir son quartier and Regroupement information logement (RIL), Clinique communautaire de Pointe-St-Charles; citizen planning group, Action-Gardien; and residents’ groupe, Pro-Pointe.
I think the complexity of the project is a good sign: After all, a true mixed use urban development should be created by – as well as for – a diversity of users. To learn more, visit the OPCM website, or swing by the project’s open house this Sunday to smooze with community organizations and developers alike.
Schedule of OPCM public consultation:
Sunday, January 25, 10-12h, open house with kiosks representing various developers and stakeholders + activity for kids; 13h information session followed by question period. At the Centre Saint-Charles, 1055 rue Hibernia.
Tuesday, January 27, 19h audience for public comments and written memoirs. At the l’Église Saint-Charles, au 2115 rue Centre
Citizen planning group Action Gardien‘s vision for waterfront access.
5 comments
Will be interesting to see what comes of this. I do have to say that public access to the river in The Point would be amazing!
Decades ago we were allowed thru the CNR Point St Charles Locomotive Shops and got to see them overhaulling locomotives and transporting same on the 200 Ton overhead travelling crane. Amazing, and noisy.
Diesels had arrived and the no-longer-needed steam locomotives were being collected for a major scrapping orchestrated for Turcot Yards in 1961, which in itself was no longer needed with the opening of the Montreal Yard.
Now, the time has come to deal with PSC Shops, as it too is no longer required, following steam and Turcot into oblivion.
Like the Blue Bonnets Lands, a sensible plan is required.
Hopefully rational use will prevail and developement limited to low rise structures with ample green space.
If high rises are constructed at PSC, they will block the view from the city over the river and to the Adirondacks far beyond.
Look how grotty downtown Toronto looks with all the tacky buildings that have arisen beyond the Gardner Expressway.
Its the future generations that will have to look at the mistakes of today as has my generation has had to deal with the Turcot Interchange as well as the debt for the Olympic Stadium.
T’would be nice to think we have learned from past mistakes?
Back in ’66 I was working in the Chemcel Building on Dorchester right across from PVM.
We were on an upper floor gazing out the windows to the South, as the building was yet untennanted, and marvelled at the view way across the St Lawrence and the flat lands to the Townships.
Other times we went up to the roof, which was way nicer on a summer day.
We then walked over to the North side and looked across Dorchester and, lo and behold there was someone else over in PVM looking across at us.
No view, but still way up high. Sad thought.
Spending a career looking out of an office window at another Dilbert Drone from the book 1984 looking back at you 25 floors up in the Ministry of Wasted Lives.
The same can happen in an expensive apartment/condo complex.
Hmmmmm.
The ChemCel Building was once going to be named Terminal Tower, as it was above Central Station.
I thought this entire lot was contaminated by BPCs and such and I remember reading that the contamination had prevented site development.
Did the containments evaporate? I doubt that Group Mach can make the removal profitable, especially when the condo market is this shaky.
Perhaps the government is subsidizing the development?
(I personally love desolate train yards)
I’m so glad someone came up with something better than the usual “big-box retail” answer. It’s like someone asking for ideas for a television show and saying, “how about Reality TV?” It’s boring, it’s cheap, and it’s an insult to our intelligence.
The landlord who picked up the 3,5 million square feet of land for 1 $ can turn the site into condo developments. What could have been far better for the community would be if CN had bequeathed the entire lands to a non-profit organization set up to manage it on behalf of the community (Pt. St. Charles) and they could have negotiated with the corporate world regarding terms of employment etc… The CNR had employed people from the area since the Grand Trunk Railroad had been created and yet when they walked away from the land they sold it for a dollar to a well connected lawyer. Corporate responsibility ? Community values ? cooperative development ?
That is a very difficult to replicate industrial infrastructure located within metro distance of 1,5 million people. That could have been an excellent selling point as many large scale projects are typically located in remote locations with limited skilled labour available. Selling this to a condo developer may have made good business sense to the CN in some convoluted way but to society as a whole it was utterly retarded as an entire economic policy for the southwest area of montreal could have been based upon that land holding. The current residential building boom is great for condo developers but here was a way to have employment for people who would not have required vehicles to go to far flung areas and it was thrown away. Worse than that because it has rail lines going right into the facility it could have been used to make large scale windmills or even have been turned into a car production line emplying thousands as it had been used to produce sherman tanks in WW2.