Mall owner takes Pointe-Claire to court
Pointe Claire has established a moratorium on new construction, which has pushed Fairview’s owner to take that town to court for messing with its big development plans. At risk is a piece of forested land directly west of the big mall, which has somehow escaped being paved over. A bit of forested land there would be good for urban cooling and the mental health of residents, but can the suburb afford to limit its tax base by holding back further development indefinitely?
Dominic 23:08 on 2022-03-11 Permalink
Absolutely no one is walking in that wooded area except for MAYBE a few hyper local residents. Its right on the 40, and in a wildly inconvenient place. There are no paths or open areas to walk to or through. Not saying it should be paved, but its definitely not a park people can enjoy on a personal level
Raymond Lutz 08:50 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
Wow, what a weak argument. “hyper local” ??? What’s next? “used only to conceal Russian homeless tents”?
“There are no paths” false: google maps + street view show frequent passages on multiple sides.
“Its right on the 40, and in a wildly inconvenient place” false: it’s right next to a densely populated residential neighborhood.
dhomas 08:58 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
We definitely need more green space. Do we really need more malls?
I actually think the city could win this one. Cadillac Fairview, the owners of Fairview Pointe-Claire mall, are wholly owned by the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan. If it was owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge (CDPQ), they might have had a tougher time…
Raymond Lutz 09:01 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
Ah, pis aussi (bien que les gens qui n’ont en tête que le développement immobilier s’en calissent) un mot: biodiversité. But who cares about a fucking little frog going instinct? A butterfly? ffs, a WORM? Jobs, jobs, jobs. We need more jobs.
Spi 11:01 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
@Raymond in no setting by any professional would detached single family homes be considered “densely populated”
@dhomas, Cadillac Fairview proposal isn’t about building a bigger mall, although it might involved some more retail space, it’s principally about building condo’s.
A lot of this is just nimby’sm hiding behind environmental conservation. The truth is that wealthy single family home owners don’t want condo’s being built near them.
Meezly 11:28 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
With Raymond on this one. I hate that human-centric thinking that can’t let undeveloped land exist as is and can’t help but place some resource value on land that doesn’t have any worth unless humans have access to it somehow, whether it’s to exploit or enjoy recreationally.
There’s nevertheless intrinsic value in undeveloped green space, even if it’s just for simple carbon capture and urban cooling.
It seems that Cadillac Fairview wants to develop that area in anticipation of the dreaded REM. A local citizen’s group, Save the Fairview Forest, has been fighting this since they caught wind of it as they claim that forest harbours an ecosystem. They’re fortunate to have the mayor on their side that understands the value of conservation.
Raymond Lutz 11:33 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
@Spi, “densely populated” comparé à la petite ville ou je vis… Je suis tout à fait d’accord pour l’abandon des maisons unifamiliales. Rasons-les et remplaçons-les par des logements sociaux.
DeWolf 12:06 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
There are two issues here: the woods and the mall. Protecting the woods from development does not impact the potential to redevelop the mall’s surface parking. You can do both.
The activists fighting to save the woods are fighting the good fight, but Pointe-Claire’s mayor isn’t: he’s trying to protect the environmentally destructive single-family sprawl that makes Pointe-Claire a drain on the world’s environmental resources.
Chris 13:37 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
Alas, if they don’t cut down *those* trees to build more buildings, they’ll just cut down other trees further out, increasing sprawl, traffic, pollution, etc. It’s two bad choices. 🙁
Spi 14:23 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
This just creates terrible incentives, as if the current ones weren’t bad enough. A developer who owns large swaths of land and decides they want to keep some of it in it’s natural state until the time comes to develop it, now they’re just better off flattening the whole thing the minute you get the authorization.
EmilyG 20:07 on 2022-03-12 Permalink
The forest is next to Fairview mall. It is easy to get to from the mall. It isn’t an out-of-the-way place.
I like to go on nature walks, and I haven’t had a chance to go there myself yet, and I hope it still exists in the future.
Meezly 10:45 on 2022-03-13 Permalink
Thanks for the clarification, DeWolf. Just from what little I’ve read, he seems to be on the side of the activists and following up on his platform to protect local residents’ quality of life and prevent increased traffic caused by overdevelopment.