By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
Intense debates ensued during a three-and-a-half hour special Côte St. Luc council meeting to pass draft bylaws regarding Côte St. Luc’s master plan for the future of the city, including the potential redevelopment of the city’s three malls.
A detailed explanation of the bylaws was given at the meeting, and details of the master plan, which Mayor Mitchell Brownstein says is currently a vision with no specific redevelopment proposals presented to the city yet, can be seen at cotesaintluc.org/engage. A public consultation will be taking place 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at a location yet to be determined. Questions included concerns about the potential redevelopment of Décarie Square, an area with a great deal of traffic already.
Councillor Oren Sebag, who represents the area that includes Décarie Square, voted against some of the bylaws. “As much as I believe in a strong vision for the city, I don’t think we’re ready to move forward with this plan,” he said. “We needed to have targeted district meetings before getting to tonight’s meeting. The plan has faced delay after delay. And instead of giving us time to properly review it or consult residents in a meaningful way, we’re rushing to the finish line.” Sebag also objected to the date of the consultation, saying many CSLers will be out of town.
Rebuttals included the fact some 10 percent of the CSL population was consulted in the last two years the master plan process has taken place.
Councillor Mike Cohen said two years ago was the last time the malls presented an idea of how they want to redevelop, and that he only received a briefing more than two weeks before the Nov. 20 meeting. “They’ve been the invisible malls since then,” he added. “My concern is the fact that we’re putting forward our ‘vision’ for the three malls, including Quartier Cavendish, and that vision will likely be 6-2 in favour of everything. The mall will have license to do whatever it wants, based on the parameters being put together in this plan. The plan is magnificent in terms of everything it entails, but I’m very big on consultation….I would have liked to consult on our vision for the mall going back to last summer.” He also objected to the Jan. 13 public consultation date, because of the snowbirds.
Councillor Lior Azerad said the plan isn’t being passed in its final form yet. “Yes, there were things that were rushed, but 1,600 pages weren’t rushed. There’s always little changes.” He added that the city needs revenue — earlier in the meeting, it was pointed out that the valuation of the malls has gone down, while the valuation of homes has shot up. As well, tens of millions of dollars are needed to fix the city’s infrastructure.
Near the end of the meeting, the debate got more intense between Councillor Dida Berku and Sebag. “From day one, Councillor Sebag, you’ve been telling us and me, in particular, ‘I’m voting no,’” Berku said. “You’ve been voting against this from the beginning! It’s not ‘we didn’t have consultations or ‘it’s being rushed.’ From Day 1, ‘I’m voting no!”
Sebag said he took offence to the comments. “I never said ‘from Day 1.’ I listened, I sat at every meeting. I contributed to this, and I told you specifically, in June, that there were delays after delays. I don’t want to get into personal issues here, because then we’ll stay all night. I haven’t been voting no for the sake of voting no. For you to say, in front of everybody here publicly, that I told you I’m voting No, you very well know what was happening, I told you the delays would cause issues.”
Sebag demanded an apology, and Berku retracted her comment. The Suburban then asked Berku if her retraction meant her comments were not true — she replied that she stands by them, and had retracted because Sebag was offended. n