Griffintown
January 17th, 2010
Surface parking lots in downtown Montreal.
As I mentioned in my post last week about the 2010 City of Montreal budget, one of the new measures it includes is a special tax on downtown parking spaces. Two zones of taxation are proposed. Parking lots in central neighbourhoods (defined by Atwater on the west, Papineau on the east, and des Pins on the north) will be taxed at a lower rate. Parking lots in the central business district will be taxed at a higher rate. In both cases exterior surface parking will be billed at a higher rate than indoor parking.
The charges will range from $19.80 per square metre for a surface lot in the central business district to $4.95 per square metre for an indoor lot farther out. The revenue generated from this tax will be earmarked for improving public transit, and the city expects it to make around $20 million dollars per year.
This is a measure long overdue. As the above map shows, surface parking lots take up a significant portion of the downtown area. While the situation in Montreal is not nearly as bad as in some of the Canadian Prairies cities or the US Sunbelt cities, surface parking is nevertheless very present.
…continue reading The Parking Lot Tax
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Permalink for The Parking Lot Tax
Posted by Devin Alfaro
Categories City Hall / Hôtel de Ville, Development / Développement, Downtown, Griffintown, Planning / Urbanisme, Spacing Montréal, Traffic / Circulation
November 26th, 2009
The OPCM has already begun public consultations for the Quartier Bonaventure which will drastically overhaul the no-man’s land between Griffintown and the Quartier des Recollets (just west of Old Montreal). What I originally thought of away as a simple remake of the highway actually turns out to be an entire neighbourhood with residential and commercial towers, a public square, and new green spaces near the canal. At first glance I’d say it’s a better spot than most for those ubiquitous high rises.
Being a fan of re-inhabiting unused nooks and crannies in the city, I quite like the plan for “Renewed use of the Canadian National rail viaduct”
In order to reinsert the rail viaduct into the urban fabric of the faubourgs, it is proposed to reopen its fenestration, reclaim the ground-level floor space for commercial use, and make more safe and comfortable the many east-west passageways. That part of the rail viaduct between Ottawa and William streets, facing the public place, could house, most usefully, the necessary facilities for the users of public transportation. (From the city of Montreal’s Quariter Bonaventure Synthesis document PDF).
So far the main controversy is over the Dalhousie bus corridor which would funnel buses from the South Shore through the neighbourhood (there are currently about 350 of those buses a day and they have to take a more circuitous route through the old streets).
The vibrations from construction and concentration of bus traffic could harm the historic New City Gas Co. building, and opponents describe the corridor as a barrier and a health hazard for local residents. Apparently, a business man with interest in the area has been trying to mobilize citizens against the Dalhousie bus corridor.
Rendering of the Dalhousie bus corridor, with the CN rail vaiduct with fenestration re-done and new commercial spaces.
At the outset, I’m a bit concerned that this neighbourhood is being planned independently from the Windsor-Station-train-tracks-over-St-Antoine idea that has been floating around recently. It would be a shame to invest so much transforming the Bonaventure autoroute into an urban boulevard and integrating the CN viaduct into the urban fabric, only to create a brand new barrier a few blocks away.
I don’t know enough about it to say much at this point. For those interested in learning more, the OCPM is holding an information session tonight (Nov 26) at 7pm at the Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde, 1110 rue mansfield. Another information session will be held December 1st at 7pm, and memoirs and comments can be presented January 12, 2010.
Both images are from the Fiches synthèses du rapport de l’avant-projet détaillé, mars 2009 (PDF) as seen on the OPCM website
where the Old Dublin pub sits recessed in a parking lot,
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Permalink for Quartier Bonaventure public consultations
Posted by Alanah Heffez
Categories Bridges and Spans, Griffintown, Public Consultation / Consultation Publique, Revitalisation
April 28th, 2009
Photo prise le 24 avril, 2009, derrière l’écurie sur la rue Bassin.
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Permalink for Photo du Jour : Bassin Street Buggies
Posted by Alanah Heffez
Categories Griffintown, Photo du jour
March 22nd, 2009
The plan to tear down the Bonaventure Expressway in favour of an “urban boulevard” (with four lanes going both ways), complete with new office buildings and hotels with street-level storefronts has been on the table for few years and now looks as if it will be a reality sooner than later. However, recently added to the plan is the idea of a bus corridor to be used by the 1 400 public transit buses that cross the Champlain Bridge every day travelling between Montreal and the South Shore. The new bus corridor, which will shave only a few minutes off the current commute will start at the existing bus terminus on rue de la Cathedrale and travel down Dalhousie which will be extended to reach the Bonaventure Expressway. The Gazette has a map of the plan, along with the plan for Phase 1 of the Bonaventure project here.
One of the most costly and controversial parts of the project is the need to drill a tunnel through the elevated train tracks for Dalhousie to be extended. Experts are concerned however, that the 160 year old New City Gas Co. building will not be able to withstand the vibrations from the drilling along with the thousands of buses that will pass by it daily if the corridor is built as planned. The corridor, which will cost somewhere around $65 million dollars is being heavily criticised by members of the Comité pour le sain redéveloppement de Griffintown* who, in a press release, questioned the need for the corridor suggesting alternate routes that wouldn’t threaten heritage buildings, and ultimately be less costly:
During the roadwork period, the most logical detour for the estimated 1 400 daily buses (200 buses per hour at rush hour) would be to turn left on Wellington street and drive up Peel Street, (two wide streets with multiple lanes). Why was this option rejected? Because, we’re told, Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay wishes to reserve Peel Street for the hypothetical and much publicized tramway line, although it isn’t budgeted for in the near future by the AMT.
And why shouldn’t the permanent route be a reserved bus lane on each of the two new four-lane urban boulevards? So buses don’t slow down car circulation, says the AMT. Yes, five traffic lights along the new section are bound to slow down traffic at rush hour. So why not simply use the reserved lane in the opposite direction at rush hour?
Luckily, as The Gazette reported, the plan will be going to public consultations through the Office de consultation publique de Montréal, however, their website as of yet says nothing of it.
*Full disclosure: The CSRG is an organisation of which I am a member.
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Permalink for New City Gas Co. building threatened by bus corridor proposal/Bonaventure redevelopment
Posted by Chris Erb
Categories Development / Développement, Griffintown, Planning / Urbanisme, Revitalisation, Traffic / Circulation
