The two towers

>> Carré St-Louis residents brace themselves for a proposed building project

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

The Saturday morning meeting between Carré St-Louis residents and developer Guy Chadillon, held at the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec, could have been worse. Chadillon, president of Beau Design, a residential construction firm, was there to talk about his upcoming project, which would have two towers, one 16 storeys, the other 22, built on Sherbrooke East between Sanguinet and Laval—a vacant lot now populated only by weeds and some 30 trees, mostly black maple and poplars. Behind the towers would be an enclosed courtyard bordered by 17 townhouses. All would be upscale condominiums, with the apartments fetching an average $325,000 a pop and the houses starting at half-a-mil.

Residents of the leafy Victorian park that backs onto the site were, predictably, concerned. Some more, and more vocally, than others.

“The project is horrendous! It’s a monstrosity! It is horrible!” screamed one man, to middling applause from the 50 or so Carré residents who turned out. “When are you going to talk about the project’s sheer, simple ugliness?!” (Although that would have been impossible, as the architectural design hasn’t been finalized yet.)

Another resident kept repeating, like a mantra, “We don’t want towers. Understand that. We. Don’t. Want. Them. And we will do everything we can to block them from being built.”

Others raised questions about noise, the effects construction would have on their houses’ foundations, the skyline, the sun—pretty much the gamut of concerns that would make life less enjoyable for the residents of one of the Plateau’s most sought-after addresses.
In the ugly little room in the equally ugly building across St-Denis from the Carré, Chadillon attempted to allay fears. He pointed out that he and the architects of Cardinal Hardy et associés did their best to preserve whatever bucolic bliss was to be found in the area.

Twenty-three of the 30 trees would be preserved; the townhouses would be made out of stone, not concrete or brick; no heavy equipment would pass through the park; the historic walls and stairs on Sherbrooke, where once stood the Bon Pasteur convent until suspicious fires in the mid-’60s led to its eventual destruction, would be preserved; studies on traffic, wind, parking and sun had been done, and the effects of all four on life in the Carré would be, Chadillon said, “minimal.” Residents were dubious.

Fear of heights
“We don’t want something so high that it will destroy our area,” says Laval street resident Bob Keaton. At Chadillon’s request, he chaired the Saturday morning meeting. Chadillon picked him because of Keaton’s history as both a Montreal city councillor and his involvement in a 1974 committee to protect the Carré. The Dawson College political science prof, who has lived on the park for 33 years, alerted residents to the project but says he came to the meeting with an open mind.

“I think the meeting was a success, because if you look at it from the point of view of the objective, which was for the developer to become directly aware of the concerns residents have about the details of the project, it was successful,” Keaton says. “It was an informal exchange and gave both sides the opportunity to size things up before the formal consultation process with the city. It was refreshing. A lot of developers wouldn’t give a tinker’s damn to meet head-on with citizens.”

While Keaton and others are naturally concerned with the effects a massive construction job so near their homes would have on their own day-to-day lives, he did acknowledge the pains Chadillon took to ensure the project would not be a huge, imposing presence that would massively disrupt the feel of the park. In fact, Chadillon’s project is below the zoning requirements’ maximum limits. “The existing bylaws could allow for a project that is really abominable,” Keaton says.

Construction and continuity
That is a fact that Chadillon pointed out repeatedly, both at the meeting and in an interview with the Mirror. The existing bylaws allow for a maximum 275 units. His project has 238. It also allows for a through-street from the Carré into the courtyard, which his project does not. He could have buildings occupy up to 77 per cent of the land, but now uses only 45 per cent. He could have cut down all the trees, but chose to build around them. Most importantly, perhaps, Chadillon is technically allowed to build smaller towers at the back of the lot, which would alter the park’s feel far more, he says, than the one he has planned. “You can’t ask for much more than that,” he says. “I’m still ready to make it more attractive.”

Chadillon makes no secret of his motive for building on the site. “It’s about the money,” he baldly told the Saturday morning crowd. He wouldn’t reveal the amount he paid for the lot, but did mention that previous speculators offered the owner up to $20-million for a number of projects, including hotels, high-rises and casinos. “That lot has been empty for almost 35 years. If the city wanted to buy it and turn it into a park, it had lots of time to do it. It never did.”

Chadillon also states that as both a Montrealer and as a former resident of the Carré, he is aware of the delicate balance between new construction and maintaining a certain continuity. “But if my project is rejected by everyone from the first city bureaucrat to elected officials to the urban planning board, I’ll go back and design it according to what the bylaws specify,” he warns.

Hard truths
The sad reality remains, for Carré residents at least, that construction will, in one way or another, go ahead. The city certainly cannot afford to buy the land, and the property tax paid on it will be a hefty chunk for municipal coffers. Keeping it abandoned is simply not viable. But is erecting two huge towers the answer?

“The height and visual presence of the buildings are what is causing concern, compared to the scale of Sherbrooke,” says Dinu Bumbaru, director of Heritage Montreal. “The street has already been quite affected by poorly designed towers. As for greenspace, well, it’s always nice to have greenspace, even if it is only for local residents.”

So that leaves the residents with the unpleasant task of dealing with whatever goes up on the lot. The land is bought, for a pretty big chunk of change, and Chadillon has stated that it is his intention to make it profitable. “The units are going to be upscale,” he says. “It won’t bring down [Carré residents’] property values.” It won’t be social housing, that’s for sure.
So where does that leave area residents like Keaton and the others? Grudging acceptance, it seems. “The project is worth the residents’ serious consideration,” he says. “It’s not going to remain the status quo unless the city buys it, which they won’t. Still, it’s nice to have as much a say on the issue as possible.”

Other informal meetings between Chadillon and residents are planned before the project enters formal public consultation at the end of October or beginning of November. Chadillon says that if all goes well, digging begins next spring. :