The Mayor of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Émilie Thuillier, and the candidate for the position of City Councillor for the Saint-Sulpice district, Julie Roy, today presented their vision for the development of the Louvain Est eco-district and their commitment to launch the construction of this major project during the next mandate. This announcement comes at a time when the development of the project has just taken a very important step on September 22 with the adoption by the executive committee of the urban planning rules applying to the site. This decision follows the publication in August of the report by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) on the Louvain Est site, which indicated a very strong consensus on the project.
"After years of citizen mobilization and more than three and a half years of joint work by our administration and the community, the vision and development plan that were developed for the Louvain site will be integrated into the City's Urban Plan. The next administration of Projet Montréal will therefore move forward with the construction of a new and comprehensive neighbourhood that will meet pressing needs for community and solutions for affordable housing, local services and businesses, and sustainable mobility," said Ms. Thuillier.
"The development of the Louvain East eco-district is a prime example of what can be accomplished when a Projet Montréal team is elected. While the previous administration had no integrated vision for this site and no plan to involve the community in its development, it is now an innovative and exemplary project that is emerging. As a future councillor for the Saint-Sulpice district, I am nevertheless sensitive to the concerns expressed by some of the project's residents during the OCPM's public consultations and which were communicated to me directly. The population of the district needs to be able to count on an elected official who is present on the ground and who listens to ensure that the project is harmoniously integrated into the neighbourhood. I am committed to playing this role, which is the logical extension of my 10 years of experience in citizen mobilization," said Ms. Roy.
The development of the Louvain Est eco-neighbourhood is being guided by a shared planning office, which brings together representatives of the city, the borough and the community, organized within a citizen steering committee of the local consultation round table, Solidarité Ahuntsic. This unique and innovative framework is already inspiring other urban projects.
"During the next mandate, we will continue to innovate in the development of this site by putting in place a mode of governance that will make it possible to protect the affordability of the housing that will be built there in an ecologically-sustainable and socially responsible manner. One option that we are considering with great interest is the establishment of a social utility trust to manage the site, a proposal that the OCPM recommends be retained. The definition of the project's mode of governance is one of the projects on which the Shared Development Office, which is guiding the project, will be actively working in 2022," added Ms. Thuillier.
The Louvain East eco-district will include 800 to 1,000 housing units, all of which will be affordable and at least 50% of which will have a designated social and community mission. The site will also include a school, a community centre, local businesses, urban agriculture and a food hub.
On September 22, the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal adopted two by-laws for the transformation of the Louvain East site. The first bylaw aims to modify the urban plan in order to allow the creation of a new sector to be transformed and to modify the parameters of construction density. The second bylaw contains the urban planning rules necessary for the creation of an eco-district on the Louvain Est site.
