real estate

Citizen groups, developer spar over height of Îlot Dorchester project

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

peterblack@qctonline.com

The city administration will decide “in the coming days” the fate and shape of a major development project in Saint-Roch.

A battle over the Îlot Dorchester plan between citizens’ groups and the developer, Groupe Trudel, flared up last week over the impact the mixed housing and commercial project would have on the neighbourhood skyline.

The groups claim the developer is trying to “divide and conquer” local residents, while the developer has struck back, denouncing “lies and falsehoods” coming from opponents of the project.

After a series of consultations organized by the city, Groupe Trudel submitted a plan in October to transform what is currently a huge park- ing lot along Rue Saint-Vallier Est into a complex with 410 housing units, including 20 social housing and 40 afford- able housing units, a 150-room, 20-storey hotel and a large grocery store.

The main focus of opposition to the project is the height of the hotel, which does not conform with the urban development plan for that zone of Saint-Roch, which currently has a 10-storey maximum.

Company president William Trudel seems to have stoked opposition to the project with comments he made in media interviews two weeks ago. Speaking on BLVD radio Jan. 20, he suggested citizens are against the project because they don’t want to lose “their partial view of the mountains in a housing crisis […] People have difficulty finding housing, and then they show up and say, ‘I don’t want to lose my sunset.’”

The Collectif citoyen Saint- Roch/Saint-Jean-Baptiste responded Jan. 30 with a long and harshly worded open letter which argues that the city itself has vaunted the “panorama” that would be obstructed by the hotel tower.

The letter said, “The developer’s rhetoric of minimizing the value of this remarkable panorama is all the more laughable, since it is precisely its value that he covets with all his heart! Why build on the Dorchester block a world-class hotel [that] will bring tens of thousands of tourists to Saint- Roch, according to his own words? What is so attractive about this location for a hotel chain, if not, precisely … the remarkable panorama?”

Trudel, in turn, struck back with an open letter published in the Journal de Québec Feb. 5. While saying, “We welcome the expression of opinions contrary to ours since this moves the debate forward,” Trudel wrote, “I take up my pen … to correct the facts on the five biggest lies being spread.”

The letter addresses and rejects claims about the amount of green space allotted to the project, the inclusion of Airbnb units, the amount of social housing, the question of densification of housing and the description of the hotel as “luxury.”

Regarding “densification,” Trudel notes that Quebec City has 5,550 people per square kilometre in its downtown, making it less densely populated than Ottawa (6,800), Montreal (8,370), Toronto (16,600) and Vancouver (18,800.)

He concludes the letter, “[S]preading lies and defaming my company is a line that I will never allow to be crossed. I built Trudel with $1,500 and an immense amount of personal effort and sacrifice. The 150 employees earn their living within the company with pride, honour and honesty. We are the example that anything is possible in Quebec.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Bruno Marchand said the city is expected to make a decision on the Îlot Dorchester project “in the coming days.”

In previous comments, Marchand said the city is looking for compromises to ensure the block is developed.