Molson district: city and developer at odds
The rising Molson district is seeing a scrap between city and developer, the latter agitating to add more floors than the zoning allows, while the city wants to avoid a local referendum.
It seems nearby residents are not concerned about shade or even about the new buildings blocking the view of the mountain or dominating the waterfront. It’s increased traffic – of course.
(Here’s a suggestion: give an extra low social housing rent to people willing to live without cars!)
In other news, CTV tells us about 210 new affordable housing units going up on what they call Lorimier Avenue. “Up to 84 eligible households will be eligible for the Quebec Rent Supplement Program (PSLQ) through the Quebec Housing Corporation (SHQ). By way of this program, individuals will not pay more than 25 per cent of their income toward rent.
Additionally, 126 units will be offered at 95 per cent of median rent.”
Notice the weaselly “up to” and the princely offer of 5% off. We’re living in a true utopia here.
Nicholas 17:10 on 2026-06-08 Permalink
The people who just moved into brand new towers are trying to stop other people from moving into even newer towers, what a perfect story. It’s like the people who gentrify a neighbourhood immediately complaining about newer gentrifyers. Change was great but should stop as soon as I move in.
Worth noting again that the city now has the right to remove the ability to demand a referendum from the zoning by-law, so if they don’t want to hold referendums because they cost too much they could change the law to remove them and then discretionarily decide whether to approve a project based on public consultation, not public veto. That they’re not even doing this for Ville-Marie shows how much the new administration, like the last administration, doesn’t actually want to push the envelope.
Kate, median rents include all housing, not just housing that’s listed for rent but housing that is old and rent controlled. Median rent is much lower than the asking/listed rent, which itself is lower than asking rent for new units. Renting a brand new unit downtown at even the median rent would be a good discount from what is charged generally for new units, and so 5% off that is slightly lower still, and a fair bit lower than it would be without this deal. For reference the CMHC says the median rent in the Montreal area over all unit types is $1,200, though downtown a 2br is $2,150. (Story is unclear if it’s region-wide median rent or neighbourhood.)