On June 27, the Borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville held its public consultation on the draft Special Urban Planning Program (PPU) for the District Central.

As the voice of the business community, the SDC District Central made sure to inform and consult, in particular, the members of its Urban Planning Committee, as well as property owners, encouraging them to join in the consultation a few days later. Some sixty people turned up on June 27.  Many of them took to the microphone to express their recommendations, questions and concerns about certain elements presented, all with a view to improving the proposed PPU.

Recap of the process :

• In 2019 and 2020, through the work of the SDC, the community expressed its views during consultations on detailed planning for the development of a TOD area around the Ahuntsic and Chabanel stations. At the end of this consultation period, the SDC noted the borough’s willingness to make this TOD study the basis of the PPU for Ahuntsic and Chabanel stations.
• Between 2021 and the public consultation on June 27, 2024, the SDC District Central regularly asked the borough about the next steps in the process and the intentions between the TOD study and the PPU. In the fall of 2023, an information session on the conceptual approach to the project, now named “PPU District Central”, was held with the business community, which was given the opportunity to express its views briefly.
• The announcement of an upcoming public consultation (June 27) was made at the Borough Council meeting of June 10, 2024. The 126-page PPU District Central document was then made available for consultation for the first time.

Here’s what the SDC has retained at this stage:

• The PPU proposes many of the elements brought forward by the community and expressed through the work of the SDC as part of the 2019-2020 consultations on the master plan for a TOD area around the Ahuntsic and Chabanel stations.
• In light of the interventions of June 27, 2024, a pre-consultation phase would have been necessary to give the community time to better understand the impacts of the PPU and to express its point of view, considering that this regulatory tool will influence the development of District Central for the next 20 years. The SDC would like to thank the experts at ELEMENTS Planification urbaine and MOBA for their responsiveness in analyzing and issuing recommendations within very tight deadlines.
• The accelerated process deprives the process of the collective intelligence and value that an optimal mobilization of the business and civic communities could have had.
  
• Some of the ideas expressed on June 27 warranted further discussion and exchange prior to the Borough’s submission for adoption by City Council of the PPU District Central on July 2.

Business leaders, property owners, residents and the SDC District Central team are all mobilized around this opportunity to transform the area in a sustainable way, and reiterate their willingness to collaborate with the borough to create an exemplary project that lives up to the ambitions we share for District Central.

The SDC team is currently analyzing the document adopted by the borough on July 2 to see what changes have been made following the public consultation on June 27.

Consult the PPU District Central >>

Consult the recommendations made by the SDC District Central :

• Document #1 (project analysis) >>
• Document #2 (portrait of the territory) >>

Business community mobilized for the PPU District Central consultation :

AEDN – Lorne Lieberman, Margarita Mavromichalis and Emmanuel Amar
Carrosserie Euro – Tony Cutrone
Centre d’art Battat – Anne-Marie Barnard, Victor Shiffman, Ilaria Ceriello, and Antonio Di Bacco
Eastern Bloc – Alicia Turgeon
Équation 56 – François Hamel
Groupe SBI – Daniel, Jonathan and Steven Schouela, Robert Gauthier
Îlot 84 – Laurent Lussier and Emilie Wake
Les Ateliers Belleville – Jonathan Villeneuve
Les Immeubles HS – Howard Szalavetz
Les Immeubles Nérik – Erik Tremblay and Nérée Arsenault
Marcarko 555 Midtown – Eyal Cohen
Matelas Sélection – Eugénie, Chantal and Stéphane Lévis
OOKPIK – Sylvain Roy
Quadreal, Marché Central – Michel Caumartin, Tina Khan and Francesca Corneli
Simplex Location d’outils – Célestine Véronneau
St-Germain Fabrique & Resident – Pier-Luc St-Germain
Terra Café – Carlo Granito
Yves Martin sous-vêtements – Arden Amirian

See the photo album >>