Last month, the STM announced that it would start selling off some of its property for development, following the lead of many other transit agencies around the world, including Toronto’s TTC. It has already announced that the bus depot it owns at Fullum and Mount Royal, on the Plateau, will be redeveloped. Now comes word of another major development will take place at the depot on the corner of St. Denis and Rosemont.
According to La Presse, STM has signed an agreement with the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal to develop the land. The SHDM is now investigating its potential. André Lavallée, the mayor of Rosemont-Petite-Patrie, says that the borough will incorporate the STM land into a complete reconfiguration of the area between the Van Horne Viaduct, Bellechasse St., St. Denis St. and St. Laurent Blvd, all of which is within easy walking distance of Rosemont metro. It will, in effect, become an entirely new neighbourhood: “It will have small businesses, housing and local shops,” Lavallée told La Presse.
When you consider that a similar mixed-use development is already slated for the city-owned land just east of St. Denis, this project has the potential to radically transform the area around Rosemont metro. Does Montreal have what it takes to ensure that the new neighbourhoods built on these publicly-owned lands will be of the highest quality?
I’m reminded of what Larry Beasley, Vancouver’s former director of planning, said when he delivered a lecture at McGill’s School of Urban Planning last month: “The cities we want don’t just come about — we have to ask for it to make it happen.” So far, Montreal’s track record at large-scale land redevelopment is abysmal. The Faubourg Québec project just east of Old Montreal is bland, disconnected from the city around it and lacking in public amenities and, just as important, retail and commercial space. Same for the redeveloped lands along St. Grégoire in the north end of the Plateau. The challenge at St. Denis and Rosemont will be to both integrate the new development into the existing neighbourhood and to enhance the quality of life in the surrounding area.
With a highly politicized, opaque planning process — exactly the kinds of things that Beasley criticized in his lecture — I’m not entirely optimistic that the STM land redevelopment, as promising as it may be, will result in high-quality urban design. I hope I’m wrong.
Photo by Rémi Lemée, La Presse
5 comments
Kewl. In Toronto, all they would probably do would be to build another blessed condo, rather than housing.
That or just hold on to the land forever for no reason.
A problem I see here is, where will the STM find a closer to downtown area to store their vehicles if they were to close St-Denis Garage. This garage services the highest density areas of the city, and has the highest ridership of any other garage. The STM has already started work on expanding the Legendre garage, but that will be used to store the new 202 Articulated vehicles arriving within the next 2-5 years. They are also planning on closing Mont-Royal which would also mean less space for vehicle storage in a central location. Another note. If this neighbourhood were to be created, I can assume that there will be a huge amount of traffic that will clog up the already busy streets in this area, and most likely the crime and poverty will follow suit. I see this project as a little too optimistic and I don’t believe that the demand for new residences, let alone new neighbourhoods is warranted at the time on the island. Especially when most Montrealers are leaving the city and moving to suburbs to get away from the noise and pollution of the downtown core.
Wouldn’t that be an argument for creating new neighbourhoods in the city? The only way to keep people on the island is to build new housing that accommodates families while reducing the impact of traffic on residential area. The only way to do that is to build high-density neighbourhoods in central areas next to metro stations.
I doubt this new development would have a significant impact on traffic as long as the density is high, the design incorporates local commerce and it ensures good connections to bus lines and the metro.
I’m afraid I don’t really understand your point about crime and poverty.
I feel that removing this and other transit garages from their current locations will impact service to surrounding areas. A metro station nearby is a good solution to the local residents, especially since it is hardly used and has a bus terminus that is larger than currently is necessary.
My concern is that it will impact the availability of buses to that area if they are all sent out to a far end of the island to a garage that has not even been built or even planned yet.
As for poverty and crime. Well, this is a natural fact of life with city living, more dense populations will almost always lead to higher crime rates, and depending on what kind of housing is going to be built, poverty will be a major part of this if they decide to build public housing on this land.
Then we have to go to the question of decontamination of this land. It has been a bus garage for over 60 years, it will be a huge endevour to clean up this property.
In any fact, this project won’t be able to take off for atleast another 5 to 10 years depending on what this developer thinks of this land, and how soon the STM can relocate their property.
I found this post through a link posted on the Feb 5 post of a photo of the Van Horne/Rosemont viaduct.
The area in question is huge – from St-Denis to St-Laurent (or at least St-Dominique), from Bellechasse to St-Viateur (if you include the recently announced plans for the northern part of Mile End).
These two areas are separate, but only physically – by the railroad tracks. Most of the area is currently a near-wasteland, but with some interesting elements, and with a huge potential.
There is also a huge potential for it to go wrong. What if the area becomes like des Carrières / St-Grégoire, the other side of St-Denis near Rosemont station? Lots of condo buildings next to the railroad tracks, looking much like a bit of misplaced suburbia.
One property on Bellechasse (corner de Gaspé? next to the Fire Prevention offices) – formerly belonging to the horticultural arm of the city of Montreal – was recently sold and the building torn down. Rumour has it that the price for an entire city block was less than a condo on avenue du Parc. Is this true? Who bought the land?
More small business potential, community gardens family- and artist- oriented areas, green spaces, public spaces, work and craft / trade spaces and the maintenance of the bike path through the area are the only viable options for the development of this area.
More cars would be certain death – it is already wall-to-wall gridlock at rush hour on Bellechasse between St-Laurent and St-Denis. The area deserves to be – and should be – humanized.
Do you think there is any hope that the city might actually see a way to making this a human neighbourhood instead of selling it lock-stock-and-barrel to some developer who will put in big-box stores and a Tim’s or more faux-suburb condos where you never see or know your neighbours? The area is already a neighbourhood, and should improve not decline.