Laying down the Loblaws

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by Patrick Lejtenyi

Mont-Royal between Parc and St-Laurent will get even more gaudy and Taschereau-Boulevard-like if the revamped plans for a supermarket remain unchanged, critics charge. The new Loblaws, to stand on the ashes of the old Canadiens arena between St-Urbain and Clark, would violate a number of city zoning laws--involving height, space, parking and retail space--if the present design goes through.

"Mont-Royal is becoming a strip," says Giovanna Carnevale, an English teacher and painter who lives nearby. "If the laws are changed [to accommodate the Loblaws], most of the problems of circulation and aesthetics will be exacerbated."

The city approved the Loblaws plans December 23 without public consultation because they were within city zoning laws, says local councillor Helen Fotopoulos, but the plans were quietly changed over the summer. No public consultation was offered, and by making a zoning exception for Loblaws, she charges, the city is handing the chain an advantage over other local merchants.

"Other stores in the area have certain rules to abide by, that's called fair play," she says. "The existing stores don't benefit from these types of privileges."

Fotopoulos says that while she does not oppose Loblaws per se--"It has a good union record, and it buys Quebec produce"--she questions the company's corporate citizenship.

"What are the citizens getting out of it?" she asks. "More traffic? More bottlenecks? There is no social component to the building. They're just going ahead and making a big box."