BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report
Hudson town council will unveil its long-awaited planning bylaws next month, a major step that will lead to the lifting of the building freeze that was imposed in the municipality, in part, since the end of 2021.
Drafts of the new planning bylaws will be presented at the council meeting on Nov. 6. These regulations will outline the changes the town proposes to make governing what can be developed, including where and how these developments will be permitted.
Hudson Mayor Chloe Hutchison said the new bylaws will contain provisions in four categories: preserving the existing tree canopy by imposing additional limitations to tree cutting; protecting natural areas; increasing the contribution towards parks, natural areas, play areas and green spaces; and minimizing the environmental impact of new developments on natural areas.
“There seems to be strong support towards defining corridors for biodiversity through the town and support from the community to work with tighter rules and requirements to strengthen and preserve this biodiversity,” Hutchison said in a statement.
Once introduced, the town will host consultation meetings to explain the proposed changes in detail and solicit feedback from residents during the third week of November. Based on that feedback, council will then present a final version of the planning bylaws for formal adoption in December. This final version could include amendments that reflect the feedback council hears during the consultation process, Hutchison said.
Following final adoption in December, the bylaws will then be sent to the MRC for the regional authority to review and ensure that they conform to their guidelines. This process could take about 120 days, Hutchison said, explaining that the new bylaws would come into effect in spring of next year.
The new bylaws will replace the temporary building freeze imposed by the current administration.
But this will not be the end of how the town deals with development, Hutchison said, explaining that the provincial government continues to impose tighter environmental control and provide municipalities with new laws to frame how development projects can be rolled out.
“This is an ongoing process,” she said in a statement to The 1019 Report. “I expect that there will be successive waves of tightening regulations through the years, as legal tools and judicial support are provided by the higher levels of government to preserve and conserve natural areas without having to be repeatedly exposed to claims of disguised expropriation by promoters, developers and speculators looking to recuperate anticipated losses of profitability.”
Imposing the building freeze was one of the first moves the current administration made following the general election in November 2021. The first iteration of the freeze, official known by its French term – a Réglement de controle interim, or RCI – slapped a complete moratorium on all new construction on a wide swath of territory that stretched across 37 per cent of the municipality’s land mass. The affected areas have previously been identified in studies to have the most ecologically value.
The initial 90-day freeze was replaced in February of 2022 by a new bylaw that imposed similar restrictions but with a list of exceptions that allow construction and some tree cutting under defined circumstances. It is this moratorium that will be replaced by the proposed planning bylaws that will be presented next month.
In a separate move in April 2022, the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal imposed a building freeze of its own on a vast tapestry of undeveloped spaces across its territory in the Greater Montreal region. In Hudson, the CMM freeze included much of the land already included in the municipal moratorium. That freeze will continue to be enforced.