Lachine East project: Heritage and eco-friendly initiatives top OCPM recommendations!

Following months of information sessions and community workshops, the Office de Consultation Publique de Montreal (OCPM) released its report Wednesday on the Lachine East development, which is poised to be the largest project of its kind on the island.

“The people have spoken, and they want something that responds to the needs of the future while respecting the heritage of the past,” said Lachine borough mayor Maja Vodanovic. “Now it’s our job to build just that.”

The development project will see the construction of 4,000 housing units on 50 hectares of converted industrial land. It is expected to increase Lachine’s population by more than 25 per cent. The proposed area sits between the Lachine Canal to the south, Victoria St. to the north, 6th Ave. to the west and the railway line to the east.

While construction was initially slated to begin in 2016, the project was placed on hold after it was discovered that the land, initially designated as having been decontaminated, was in fact still polluted with heavy metals.

“This was one of the most contaminated areas in Canada, and now we want to transform it into something beautiful,” Vodanovic said. “We always knew there were going to be a few challenges involved, and the decontamination was certainly one of them.”

In February, work on the project resumed with a three-month public consultation process that included more than 800 participants. In its report, the OCPM notes the overall enthusiasm of Lachine residents and also offers nearly 40 recommendations for the project to the developers and the municipality. But although these suggestions range from affordable housing to the establishment of a bike network, according to OCPM president Dominique Ollivier, the report features two prominent themes.

“Most of our recommendations revolved around heritage and eco-friendly initiatives,” she said. “With regards to heritage, our recommendations favour cultural transformation over demolition.”

The Lachine East development project will be built on the site that used to house the Jenkins Valves and Dominion Bridge companies, the latter of which secured the contract to erect the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in 1925. In its report, the OCPM stresses the historical value of these factories and encourages the borough to prohibit any demolition until a heritage study has been conducted.

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“The public made it clear that it doesn’t want important cultural sites to disappear,” Ollivier said. “We want to ensure the borough preserves what needs to be preserved.”

Meanwhile, Vodanovic says she has always pushed to develop eastern Lachine in an environmentally responsible, climate-aware manner. By integrating environmentally friendly features such as geothermal heating and parks that absorb heavy rainfall, the mayor says she hopes to mitigate the impact of spring flooding, wildly fluctuating temperatures and mixed precipitation that have plagued the greater Montreal area in recent years.

“I’m a painter that became mayor because I wanted to do something about the environment,” she said. “There’s a possibility for us to create something good for the planet, and I think that’s why so many people came to the public consultations.”

“A lot of people want to do good, they just don’t know how. Maybe this is a way.”