It has been over a month since I’ve done my last new roundup so, because there have been such a large number of news items over such a long period of time I will simply give an overview of events concerning Griffintown and the proposed redevelopment from the last month.
–Over 500 people filled up a room at ÉTS for the first in a series of public consultations on February 21st. The city and developer Devimco each gave presentations, then fielded questions from the audience. So many people signed up to ask questions that extra days were added to accommodate them. Kate of the Montreal City Weblog was in attendance and remarked that “the sketches shown looked like a mashup of Nuns’ Island and parts of René-Lévesque Boulevard, so that the repeated mantra of échelle humaine was kind of a joke.”
–Devimco puts together “think-tanks” of various experts to study different aspects of the redevelopment.
–Other developers interested in redeveloping the area have been expressing anger that the city is giving Devimco complete control over the project and that nobody else was asked to put forth proposals.
–A petition is launched by The Committee for the Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown (CSRG) asking for a more democratic process in regards to public consultations, among other issues.
–March 10th saw the second round of public consultations begin which ran for the entire week. Over 50 briefs were presented to the city and Devimco and about 85 in total were submitted. CSRG held a press conference beforehand and arrived to the consultations in a caleche. The majority of briefs presented were against Devimco’s project and many offered examples of alternatives from European cities. During one such presentation where someone was outlining a European example of good urban design of a redevelopment similar to Griffintown, Devimco president Serge Goulet was paying more attention to his Blackberry than the presentation. All of the briefs (mémoires) can be found on the Sud-Ouest borough’s website along with all other documents concerning the public consultations (my personal favourite being Devimco’s animation showing how the development may look after it is finished).
–The CRSG blog reports that “a Léger Marketing poll indicates 47% of Montrealers are “for” Projet Griffintown, 17% are against it, and 36% are either undecided or don’t know about the project. Devimco is spinning this as a “win,” but this reading of the numbers obliterates the nuances of people who are for redevelopment, but not in the monopolistic fashion, nor in the scale or form which Devimco and the current PPU are proposing. It also showcases the fact that something with a city-wide impact is slipping by citizens unnoticed.”
–Members of the CRSG make the cover of this weeks Mirror with an excellent story about the redevelopment proposal, its opposition, and a chronology of the history of Griffintown.
–Le Devoir runs an open letter on march 21st from Phyllis Lambert, several prominent architects and urbanists, and the Order of Urbanists of Québec calling for a new, open consultation process on Projet Griffintown using the OCPM.
2 comments
Great summary. Many thanks for this.
Having just visited Friendship Cove for the first time last week this is really sad news to me. I better sign some more petitions and make the most of the space over the next year I suppose!