JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
The plan to increase the number of housing units across the Greater Montreal area — including parts of the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region — has been unveiled and, as anticipated, it outlines a framework that will see huge population increases in local municipalities.
How local towns will deal with this push to increase population densities is an open question, however.
“Such densities are not feasible across much of our territory, particularly in the west, where groundwater recharge zones, forest cover and low-impact development models must be protected,” said St. Lazare Mayor Geneviève Lachance in response to questions from The 1019 Report.
According to the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal’s new land development plan released earlier this month, which sets guidelines for 2026 to 2046, housing density rates will be increased to 40 dwellings per hectare for much of the residential areas of towns like St. Lazare and Hudson, while areas next to transit services in Vaudreuil-Dorion could see housing densities reach up to 300 units per hectare. Currently much of the residential sectors of St. Lazare have a housing density of less than three units per hectare.
The CMM’s density target has been a topic of concern in St. Lazare for the past few years, where elected officials have cited increased density requirements as a risk to the town’s rural character.
Lachance said the town is already in contact with officials at the MRC to seek exemptions from the increased density target, particularly in the densely-forested Saddlebrook sector, where the density level currently sits at 2.7 dwellings per hectare.
While the PMAD offers some flexibility with the density requirements, Lachance added that “flexibility is conditional and must be justified with strong technical and planning arguments.”
The CMM, which includes 82 municipalities on and around the island of Montreal, released its land-use plan June 9. Now, Quebec’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs has until December to approve it. It is likely, however, that the plan will be sent back to the CMM for changes, said Catherine St-Amour, a communications adviser for the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
“The (Municipal Affairs Ministry) will validate whether it is compliant (with the law),” St-Amour explained. “If there are things that are not compliant – that’s happened often in the past – often the first version is refused.”
She added that the MRC is still in the process of digesting the plan and declined to comment further.
“It’s very tricky to make a quick judgment,” she said.
Hudson Mayor Chloe Hutchison, who chairs the CMM’s Culture and Heritage commission, a position that has provided her with a front-row seat on how the plan has been development, said environmental preservation can be achieved by limiting urban sprawl – one of the goals of the plan.
“I think that’s what’s often missing in the criticism of this plan is that in order to protect more and to keep within our footprint without sprawl, we need to increase our density,” Hutchison said.
“It’s really an interesting plan once you understand what they’re up to,” she said. “It’s really about making sure the Greater Montreal area remains attractive, competitive and ‘un endroit où il fait bon vivre.’”
Lachance acknowledged that it would be several years before any proposed changes would be implemented at the local level.
“It’s a long way’s away,” she said while commenting on the plan during St. Lazare’s last council meeting on June 10. “But we still have to prepare now for it.”
Once Quebec approves the plan, it is expected that the MRC will have two years to conform to meet the goals listed. Once that is completed, individual municipalities will be given between six months and two years to ensure that their territorial development align with the regional guidelines.