Villeray – Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension the regulation against renovations sows discord

The adoption of a by-law against renovations is slowed down in Villeray – Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension, while elected officials cannot agree on a specific clause of it.

• Read also: Protesters block the Villeray – Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension district town hall

• Read also: Tenants do not want less strict regulations on “renovations”

Like several other boroughs recently, this one was to adopt Wednesday afternoon a regulation which would prevent the owners of rental buildings from merging housing.

To allow owners a little more flexibility, an exception had been added to the regulation, allowing only once the merger of a maximum of two dwellings in buildings with three to six apartments.

It is this detail that has caused the discord. Mayor Giuliana Fumagalli has vetoed to vote against the settlement. The elected, who sits as independent after being expelled from the Projet Montréal caucus, wanted it to be more restrictive, like the first version, which did not have this exception.

Ms. Fumagalli thus sided with the twenty demonstrators who had blocked access to the district town hall until 10 a.m. to protest against the regulation.

Elected officials will have to vote again on this by-law at the next borough council in November, and the mayor will not be able to apply her right of veto a second time.

“The mayor hopes to be able to take advantage of this time to be able to speak to the councilors and to be able to adopt a more restrictive version on the issuance of permits and the merging of housing,” said the office of Mayor Fumagalli.

According to the Projet Montréal advisor who proposed the motion, Rosannie Filato, the by-law represents a balance between the protection of tenants and owner-occupiers.

“The mayor seems to do things indirectly when she cannot do them directly,” said Ms. Filato. I find it unfortunate that there is a fairly significant frost effect (for the owners), so those who have had a project for several months, since the first draft in March, cannot proceed with the work. ”

The Parc-Extension Action Committee, which participated in the morning demonstration, for its part welcomed the decision of the borough council.

Last May, the borough council approved a first version of the bylaw modification by proposing three main measures to reduce the housing shortage in the neighborhood:

• Prevent reduction in the number of dwellings for existing buildings with two or more dwellings;

• Prevent the division or subdivision of dwellings for buildings with three or more dwellings;

• Prevent conversion of rooming houses to another residential use. In fact, the district has a dozen “rooming house” type establishments with a total of around 250 rooms. These establishments may eventually have to cope with market pressures.