{"id":790,"date":"2008-04-14T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T01:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=790"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:45:07","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:45:07","slug":"building-the-anti-griffintown-in-point-st-charles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/04\/14\/building-the-anti-griffintown-in-point-st-charles\/","title":{"rendered":"Building the “anti-Griffintown” in Point St. Charles"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>On Saturday, La Presse looked at a group of Point St. Charles community activists, urban planners and architects who have come up with a plan to redevelop the Alstom-owned railyards<\/a> that separate the neighbourhood from the St. Lawrence River. Described by its backers as a sort of “anti-Griffintown,” referring to Devimco’s controversial redevelopment scheme, the plan would include an intermodal transit hub, neighbourhood businesses, a waterfront promenade, an art museum, a high school and, most importantly, 4,000 new residential units, of which forty percent would be social housing.<\/p>\n

“We aren’t saying that ‘it’s this and nothing else,'” one of the Point residents involved with the plan told La Presse. “But we believe that the harmonious development of a neighbourhood has to start with its residents. We want to propose another way of thinking about development.”<\/p>\n

It would certainly be a novel approach to Montreal’s urban development, which for decades has been shaped by top-down urban planning. It also goes a long way in showing that ordinary Montrealers, far from being the knee-jerk NIMBYs that some would consider them, are open to new development — just as long as that development is neighbourhood-oriented and socially responsible. While the plans for Griffintown’s redevelopment are not necessarily as undesirable as many have made it out to be, the project’s backers have failed to engage the public in any meaningful way, which has done a lot to build opposition to it. <\/p>\n

Also in La Presse were two articles that examine two urban “lifestyle centre” redevelopments that might hint at the shape Griffintown might take: Brindleyplace<\/a> in the English city of Birmingham and The Grove<\/a> in west side Los Angeles. As interesting as both articles may be, however, their relevance is limited by the fact that both Brindleyplace and The Grove are fundamentally different from Griffintown in one crucial way: they do not include any residential units. Griffintown, by contrast, would be redeveloped with 3,800 apartments, enough for several thousand new residents. <\/p>\n

Photo by caribb<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, La Presse looked at a group of Point St. Charles community activists, urban planners and architects who have come up with a plan to redevelop the Alstom-owned railyards that separate the neighbourhood from the St. Lawrence River. 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