(Quebec) Grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores or shopping centers, developers who include housing in their commercial projects will be able to benefit from municipal “superpower” to ignore urban planning rules, under a bill tabled Thursday.
Posted at 2:47 p.m.
Updated at 4:26 p.m.
In February, the Legault government adopted a bill on housing which gave a “superpower” to cities: that of overriding urban planning rules, putting a brake on “not in my backyard” and quickly authorizing the construction of housing.
A few months later, Quebec already wants to expand it. “It’s at the request of the cities. We were told: why not add pharmacies, convenience stores, a small grocery store, a clinic? », Explains the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, in an interview.
The law therefore modifies the provision which allows municipalities to skip the approval stages for housing projects, whether or not they comply with urban planning regulations, particularly with regard to the height of buildings. “Real estate” projects will now be accepted. The only condition: that the “floor area” intended for housing is greater than that of other uses.
The same rule could also be used for public projects, such as daycare centers or libraries. According to Mme Laforest, there are “several projects on the drawing board,” and this expanded superpower will be “enormously” used by municipal authorities. The objective is always the same: to allow the erection of as many homes as possible in a context of housing shortage.
The president of the Union of Municipalities of Quebec, Martin Damphousse, affirmed last year that this “superpower” was necessary to fight against the “not in my backyard” phenomenon, which is very present. In Varennes, the city of which he is mayor, projects of three or four floors are blocked, even if he must increase density to avoid eating into agricultural land.
Contracts
But the opposition parties believed at the time that this solution risked encouraging collusion, as well as the construction of ugly buildings that were poorly integrated into their environment.
With her omnibus law, Minister Andrée Laforest also responds to requests from municipalities to clarify and simplify the contract award process. It will also allow them to conclude partnership contracts. Quebec is already studying a bill allowing a “collaborative approach”, a way of doing things which is based on the idea that the entrepreneur must be involved from the project planning stage, and that he can allow the State to reduce its costs by helping to design it better.
The Legault government estimates that with this approach, projects will be able to be carried out up to 25% faster and will cost 15% less, which entrepreneurs are delighted with.
However, municipalities were not entitled to it, which will be corrected with this bill.
