By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
The City of Côte St. Luc and Mandevco, the developer of Quartier Cavendish, are not yet agreed on the city’s position regarding a potential redevelopment of the mall site in what the CSL master plan says would be part of a town centre on and around Cavendish Blvd.
The city’s vision for the area says “it is essential that shops and local services be retained in a redevelopment project, in addition to interior and exterior public spaces. A dense residential component with high quality architecture, coupled with a mobility hub, is essential to create a complete neighbourhood.”
During last week’s public meeting on CSL’s master plan and the town centre, Councillor Mike Cohen asked about future discussions with Quartier Cavendish about such issues as the amount of storeys of buildings in the area — he mentioned six to eight storeys, and 20 storeys.
Associate City Manager Tanya Abramovitch said Quartier Cavendish has higher numbers in mind.
“Every project has to come to council,” she said. “If a building doesn’t fit or is out of scale or doesn’t fit in, it won’t be accepted at the Planning Advisory Committee level, let alone council. Council ultimately decides.”
Cohen said council has not met with Mandevco officials for several years.
“I do believe, at the appropriate time, council needs to meet with staff in a large group with the Quartier Cavendish people, and before we adopt any master plan, there needs to be a meeting with the owners of Quartier Cavendish like we did many years ago when they talked [in a public meeting] about demolishing half the mall.”
The Suburban sought more details about the differences between the city and the owner of Quartier Cavendish. Councillor Dida Berku said the city has not yet fixed a time to meet with the owners.
Berku said the city wants to find out what the differences are.
Haven’t they expressed it, we asked.
“No,” she said. “They’ve told us in writing that they have issues with the maximum and minimum heights, setbacks, ground floor commercial use and parking requirements. We don’t have their final brief and they’ve told us they will send us one ‘with our comments and opinions on the draft bylaw.’”
Berku said that until the city receives that final brief with their issues and comments, “I don’t think we’re ready to address their issues, because there are questions they raise where there may just be a misunderstanding, or a misinterpretation.”
The councillor said the city envisions heights of buildings of six to eight storeys, and the owners may want much higher buildings.
“That could be a major difference. We’re not there yet.”
The Suburban contacted Mandevoco and awaits a reply. n
