By Ruby Pratka
Local Journalism Initiative
The town of Bromont has no concrete plans to approve a 111-unit affordable housing development in Adamsville, Mayor Louis Villeneuve has said.
Several dozen Adamsville residents attended the Jan. 13 council meeting to applaud the tabling of a petition against the development, which they argued would create congestion and parking difficulties, contribute to school overcrowding and limit current residents’ access to green space. The petition received over 600 signatures from residents of a neighbourhood with less than 800 households. In a later interview with the BCN, Villeneuve said no such project had been tabled.
Villeneuve said the city had sent a letter to the Quebec government before the holidays supporting a grant request by Granby-based co-op Holocie for an affordable housing development in Bromont. Contrary to what was stated in the petition, Villeneuve said city council had not passed a resolution in favour of the project. “We sent a letter to say we supported the request for funding that they were making to the Quebec government, but that we didn’t know the details,” he said. “They came to speak with us later to say they had their eye on a piece of land where it was possible to do 111 units. I have not heard back from them since and there is no such project tabled. There’s no timeline since there’s no project.”
Villeneuve said the city, which recently appointed an affordable housing point person to develop a housing strategy and make recommendations to council, would not approve a project before “taking the time to look at it with residents.”
“For the residents, clearly, 111 units makes no sense,” he added.
Holocie CEO Jean-François Arsenault said the company is waiting for a response to a request for funding before proposing a concrete project in Bromont. “We’re waiting for the government to get back to us and then we’ll look at feasibility; the timeline depends on the funding,” he said, adding that the company did not have its eye on a specific plot of land in town. He said there were “still a lot of things to do” before determining where and whether a potential development would be built. “The projects are for the community, so we want to meet the community’s needs,” he said.
Longtime Bromont resident Jean-François Rousseau launched the petition when he heard about the potential development from a neighbour. He emphasized that he is not opposed to affordable housing. “It’s the number – 111 units – that makes no sense,” he said. “That’s enormous for the land that’s available, and on top of things, it’s an isolated piece of land. The only services nearby are a dépanneur and a school.” Rousseau said potential residents would have to have multiple cars to access services in town, increasing traffic congestion, creating parking challenges and potentially forcing cash-strapped families to buy another car.
“I think that if you have a vacant lot next door to you, you always run the risk that someone will build something, but it’s the size of the project that creates unanimous [opposition],” said Rousseau, a financial planner. “When we were circulating the petition, we had fewer than five refusals … and no one looked us in the eye and said, ‘Hey, what a good idea.’”
“We’ve been told, ‘You might be reacting too quickly,’ but sometimes things can move quickly with urban planning,” he said. “We wanted to make the city aware that 111 units, that just makes no sense. Even if there’s no project tabled, we wanted to make them think. I think the mayor and the district councillor [Coun. Jocelyne Corbeil] had the right reaction when they said, with more than 630 signatures in a neighbourhood with 750 voters, something’s not working. … There’s funding for housing and there’s a huge need for housing, but let’s take the time to do things right.”