By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban
Dollard-des-Ormeaux mayor Alex Bottausci is fighting tirelessly through what he calls “disjointed” planning by the Montreal Agglomeration and the Communauté Metropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) to push forward the interests of his residents. The CMM, headed by Montreal mayor Valérie Plante, met last spring to put together its urban planning proposal for the Greater Montreal Area, including demerged cities.
Following its revisions of the CMM’s proposal, next to its own plans created and revised through public consultations with its own residents, DDO has not only rejected the majority of the proposals but has presented their own plans to the Plante administration. “After the last Agglo meeting (last March), I positioned a request for the Jacques Bizard corridor. I directly asked for a sit down meeting with Sophie Mauzerolle, responsible for infrastructure to discuss which was publicly acknowledged and agreed to. I fired off an e-mail the next day to request a lock-down on a date. We have yet to get a response,” Bottausci told The Suburban.
Meanwhile, the CMM invited the demerged cities to the table last Monday, April 29, to review the PMAD (Plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de dévelopment) plans. “As far as DDO was concerned, there was nothing in the PMAD for transport, nothing for Sources, St-Jean and Saint-Charles in terms of transit oriented designations,” Bottausci said to The Suburban. Without the designation, the only three existing North-South arteries are not considered in the plans as public transport roads. “So no more buses,” Bottausci highlighted.
When asked about the CMM’s revision on DDO’s density proposals derived from public consultations, Bottausci replied that the consideration given went “in one ear and out the other.” The Jacques-Bizard corridor that “mysteriously disappeared”, as Bottausci puts it, from the plans last year was not included in last week’s revision meeting at the CMM either.
Bottausci requested explanations as to why his city’s proposals have not been considered, to which CMM representatives responded “We are in revision now.” According to Bottausci, the idea that the revision was happening before their eyes and that the demerged cities were made part of it at that table is an illusion, as revisions were clearly already made before he sat at the table. “They did revise and changed things around but none of that includes the plans we made derived from our findings at public consultations,” Bottausci explained.
Bottausci summoned the head of urban planning, Sylvain Boulliane, to send out a letter to make DDO’s requests known. “Our answer is ‘N…O…’ NO, we want what our residents want. We govern our own affairs and we know what our population needs. I don’t need them to make demands, especially while offering no support. Asking for densification in the wrong places, meanwhile offering no transportation plans? It is mind boggling. They want their cake and to eat it too. It does not make any sense and we are not having it,” Bottausci said to The Suburban.
When asked what the next Agglo meeting will look like given the “disconnect” between DDO’s plans and the PMAD, Bottausci said he would not comment save for the following — “We will align at the next Agglo in accordance with the response from CMM and the meeting with Sophie Mauzerolle. We are looking for answers and hopefully we get them before the next Agglo meet- that will determine how we engage there. If they don’t want to consider what we are asking, why should we consider what they are offering?” n
