New Laval urban plan calls for downtown core, protected green spaces

CTV Montreal: Laval's plan to grow Laval has finally come up with an urban development plan

With a booming population and a history of urban development plans that resembled “the wild west,” Laval officials have announced a new vision for the city’s development over the next two decades.

According to Mayor Marc Demers, prior urban development plans were decades old and lacking in detail, something that will be fixed with the new plan which was approved by city council on Tuesday.

The new plan calls for a ban on condo towers higher than five stories in many areas of the city, with the plan being to have any larger towers built in an area that will be designated as a downtown core. That area will be close to urban transit and the city’s metro stations.

Demers said the plan will also protect the city’s green spaces, with 3,300 hectares of waterfront territory being protected from development and $5 million being used to buy back green spaces.

However, not everyone is happy.

Construction on a 26-storey tower near the waterfront, on Levesque Blvd. and 61st Ave., is going ahead, much to the annoyance of people who live in the neighbourhood.

"This building will [take] two years. And they're not doing any favours. All the neighbours' lives, my life, will be upside down for the next two years," said Danru Lai.

She and other neighbours have tried to stop the development without any success.

Demers said the permits were granted and the project is too far along to stop, but promised it would be the last of its kind along the river.

That's not the case with the proposed Commodore condominium development, which was approved by former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.

The company behind that highrise planned for the waterfront between the Papineau and Viau bridges has sued the city for $64 million after Demers rescinded their permit.

Demers said he’s confident in the city’s case and pointed to the situation as exactly the sort that the new plan will help prevent in the future.