JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
The St. Lazare town council moved forward with its “Growing Greener” development project last week, which looks to develop an enclave of 60 single-family homes on land in the Saddlebrook area while preserving natural spaces by adopting two proposals to reduce the minimum sizes of the dwellings in the zone.
Councillor David Hill, whose district is where the project will be located north of Oakridge Street, was the lone council member to vote against the pair of bylaw changes June 10, meant to reduce some of the environmental impact of the new development. The proposals passed nonetheless by a vote of eight to one.
Hill had previously spoken out against the development project, telling The 1019 Report back in March that he does not support any project that causes “incursions into pristine forested areas.”
He took to Facebook on June 9, the day before the council meeting, to inform residents of the council’s proposals, calling the zone “the few remaining green spaces within the urban perimeter.”
Mayor Geneviève Lachance, however, has insisted on multiple occasions that this project takes environmental preservation to heart.
“This project is the result of a long process of discussions and revisions between the city and the developer, to reach a balanced compromise that supports both development objectives and environmental protection,” Lachance said in a reply to Hill.
She said developer Habitations Robert, which owns the land, had sued for the right to build a traditional development in the zone back in 2019. She added that such a project would have seen “a much higher number of homes covering the entire area.”
The “Growing Greener” plan will see 15 of the 53 hectares in the zone developed for homes and roads. The remaining 38 hectares, made up of woodlands and wetlands, will be preserved in perpetuity. What’s more, the wetlands in the zone will be given a 30-metre-minimum buffer area with the development – an increase from the 10-metre minimum in other areas in St. Lazare. A biologist will also be on-hand during the construction process to monitor the environmental impact.
The project sees the minimum lot size in the enclave reduced from 10,000 square metres to 1,500 square metres. The minimum width between units and the road will also be reduced from 12 to 10 metres, while the minimum distance between units will be reduced from 10 to eight metres.
“I think with the long list of things that we’re asking the developer to do in order to preserve (38 hectares of) this land, it’s the most ecological project we can have,” Lachance had explained in a March interview.
The town held a registry on the pair of bylaw changes yesterday, June 17, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Both Lachance and town clerk Nathaly Rayneault clarified at the June 10 meeting that the registry was not for residents to vote against the development project itself, but against the proposals to decrease the lot sizes in the zone, and that the project may still go ahead regardless.
The two changes required 28 and 14 signatures, respectively, in order to be put to a town referendum. Results were not available before The 1019 Report went to print.
The project is not expected to break ground until at least next year.