The project led by Patrick and Yves Garrant was presented during the meeting of the Demolition Committee of the City of Lévis on Tuesday. Around thirty opponents of the demolition were also on site to demand the preservation of the building.
The applicants wish to build a project of six condos on the ruins of the Scies Mercier factory.
The replacement project includes six rental units of different sizes. (Yves Garrant)
This is the third time that the owners of Scies Merciers have asked Lévis to authorize them to raze 220, rue Napoléon-Mercier. The building has been vacant for more than a decade, since the company that manufactures saws moved its operations to Lauzon.
In 2010, and again in 2020, the owners requested permission to destroy the 20th century industrial complex, without success. Their last request was rejected in extremis during a call, while citizens opposed a condominium project that would undermine the neighborhood’s “visual breakthroughs” towards Quebec.
The building targeted by the demolition request is not protected by the cultural heritage law. But it has a “higher heritage value”, according to the City of Lévis. However, it appears in the Inventory of essential sites and buildings of Quebec’s industrial heritage prepared by the Quebec Ministry of Culture.
The Scies Mercier factory is located at the bottom of the Côte du Passage, just before the Côte des Bûches which allows you to reach the crossing. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Le Soleil)
The Scies Mercier factory was built at the turn of the 20th century by Napoléon Mercier, founder of the Manufacture de Scies de Lévis and future mayor of Lévis.
According to the committee behind the special urban planning program (PPU) for Old Lévis, the factory which is the subject of a request for demolition is “one of the last witnesses of the industrial activity of Lévis in the 19th century”.
In 2020, the City of Lévis carried out a complete digitization of the interior of the heritage factory. It is possible to “visit” it here.
A requested municipal project
Award-winning architect Anne Carrier was part of the committee mandated in 2018 by the Lehouillier administration. Beyond the replacement project, which she prefers not to comment on, she is opposed to the Scies Mercier factory being demolished, period.
Like the majority of speakers who spoke during the Demolition Committee hearings, she wants Lévis to save the building to give it a public purpose.
“The City must take a position and invest to find a structuring project,” argues Ms. Carrier, who lives in Old Lévis. “I understand the applicant, he does not have to develop a social project. But it’s unthinkable to demolish this building.”
In addition to being of great heritage interest, the Scies Mercier factory is located on a “highly strategic” site.
It is at the foot of the Côte du Passage and at the top of the Côte des Bûches, which gives access to the Lévis crossing. “We are halfway between the Quai Paquet and the Lévis terrace, in the middle of a tourist route,” notes Anne Carrier.
“Even if we don’t have a plan, we have to take a break and think, but seriously.”
— Anne Carrier, architect and citizen opposed to demolition
She recalls that during the last demolition request, in 2020, Mayor Gilles Lehouillier had suggested that Lévis could buy the land. He hasn’t repeated the idea since.
The Scies Mercier building has been vacant since the company moved to Lauzon. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Le Soleil)
Like around twenty citizens, the Quebec History Federation and the Group of Initiatives and Applied Research in the Environment (GIRAM) oppose the demolition request.
The factory’s “Section E” collapsed, and was subsequently demolished, in 2017. (Presentation to the Demolition Committee of the City of Lévis)
In his memoir, the latter accuses the owners of having left the factory “in a state of decrepitude as the current owner seems to do, particularly at the level of the openings which have broken windows that have not been replaced”.
He proposes that the place be renovated, then dedicated to the interpretation of lumberyards and related industries, since “Lévis does not yet have any interpretation center on this past activity which marked the social and economic life of the community “.
Condos for lack of project
In interview at SunYves Garrant, co-president of the company that Scies Mercier has become, explains that it is high time that Lévis authorizes the demolition of the abandoned factory.
He claims to have done his homework since the refusal of the last demolition request, in 2020. The Lehouillier administration had finally backed down from a project that was too big which hampered “visual breakthroughs” in the neighborhood. “The building will be lower, and this time, it does not need any deviations from neighborhood standards,” notes Mr. Garrant.
The new version of the replacement project should better integrate into the neighborhood and will not harm visual views, assures Yves Garrant.
Many details of the rental project presented on Tuesday remain to be finalized, in particular its price and its method of operation.
But the replacement project presented is above all a pretext, agrees the applicant. The company mainly wants to demolish the old factory to sell the land.
“That way, we can tell potential buyers that there is already an accepted project,” summarizes the owner.
Yves Garrant denies not having tried to preserve the vocation of the factory where his company manufactured saws for generations. Even though it was for sale for years, the site never found a buyer, he notes.
The City of Lévis also made a call for projects in 2010, without retaining a proposal meeting its criteria.
“We’re just waiting for this, an interesting project, financed and supported,” assures Mr. Garant. But while no one is proposing to use it for other purposes, the building is deteriorating.”
“If we had been offered a credible project in the last 14 years, we would have said yes.”
— Yves Garrant, co-president of Scies Mercier and Garant Machinerie
The owner is also concerned about the general condition of the building. “Every year it costs more to restore.”
The Demolition Committee will have to approve or not the demolition of the building. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Le Soleil)
The fate of the Scies Mercier is now in the hands of the Demolition Committee of the City of Lévis.
The three members of the committee, which is chaired by the elected representative of Repensons Lévis, Serge Bonin, can accept or refuse the demolition request. They can also commission their own expertise or require certain actions before making their decision.
The Committee can, for example, authorize demolition, provided that the owner undertakes to preserve certain elements to integrate them during the construction of the new building.
The decision can then be appealed. It will then find itself before the municipal council, where municipal elected officials will vote for or against the demolition.
The Demolition Committee has no maximum time limit before rendering its decision.
