Nobody nibbles on the Blue Bonnets lands
La Presse’s André Dubuc reports that nobody has nibbled on the city’s project to build social housing on the old Blue Bonnets site. Dubuc says developers claim the city is asking too much, but not giving guarantees about a gradual development of the rest of the site, meaning any first project built could stand there in isolation for a long time. A professor also chimes in saying the city’s imposing too many conditions on any project proposed there.
jeather 13:00 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
I understand no other development is guaranteed but it is right next to a Walmart and not far from Namur metro, restaurants, actual grocery stores, it’s not exactly horribly isolated.
Blork 14:53 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
It’s an odd site, surrounded on two sides by railroad tracks and a third side by light industrial buildings. There’s no through traffic, so it can feel a bit like something bolted on at the edge of the world. From the mid-point it’s still almost a 1km walk to the Namur Metro station.
I wonder if the concern is that with a lack of mixed use or higher-end residences that it might become some kind of low-rent ghetto like there used to be in the 1960s and 70s with what were then called “housing projects.”
jeather 15:47 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
Yeah it is a weird site, and it is a bad distance from a metro — a bit too far for an easy walk, a bit too close for a full bus schedule. This is not going to be a higher-end residence location unless, I guess, something spills over from the Royalmount project.
Blork 16:43 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
I think the original vision was probably that developments like we see in The Triangle would spill over into that area. As in, a bunch of different condo buildings of different types, all connected by landscaped green bits and nice footpaths and low-speed roads, with little shops on the ground floors, etc. I’m sure someone envisioned a little urban utopia in there, with the lack of through traffic actually being a plus (i.e., no cars racing through; the only traffic being local).
That could still happen I think, but it will require a special kind of visionary, and would take involvement from a bunch of different parties (real estate, developers, the city, retailers, etc.) and they would all have to agree on what they’re doing, and they’d have to have the flexibility to be creative. I doubt any of that is going to happen, especially with the competition from The Triangle and Royalmount right there.
Kevin 21:04 on 2023-01-31 Permalink
I still think the largest issue will be getting trucks in and out of that area, considering the only access is through two of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the country.
James 10:58 on 2023-02-01 Permalink
In 2009 when the city released the report about the cote-des-neiges tramway, the terminus in phase one was at Jean-Talon and Cote-des-neiges. Phase two planned to extend it westwards into the Hippodrome area. Unfortunately, the tramway idea came to nothing. This would have been the primary method to ensure that the area was pedestrian-friendly.
On re-reading the “Plan de transport 2008” adopted by the Tremblay administration, only 2 1/2 projects didn’t happen:
Orange line extension to Bois-Franc
Tramway network
Pie-IX SRB all the way to downtown (only goes to Pie-IX station)
The airport to downtown train planned for was replaced by the more ambitious REM project.
Not too bad…