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Old Posted Apr 2, 2012, 6:57 PM
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McC McC is offline
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Montreal shouldn't be compared directly, the planning/zoning rules there are set in stone so the terms of debate are completely different (if you haven't already, check out that 3-part interview with the guys Urban Capital in urbantoronto.ca, they discuss the similarities and differences for developers working in Ottawa, TO and MTL). Here, a lot of the fight happens in the big open spaces between what the zoning says, what the (often various) plan(s) say(s), what the developer wants and what neighbours want -- lots of room for debate. But where the plan and zoning are consistent and consistently enforced, then any developer proposals that differ widely are rejected out of hand and the public has little to argue against in a normal course of events. So where big debate happens in MTL, in most cases, is around new plans, e.g., the redevelopment of Griffintown, the megahospitals, or the UdeM expansion at the old Outremont rail yards; because once the plan is done, it's pretty much set. In that model, you don't get the 'constant drip' of fights over every new development proposal, you get sporadic spikes of fighting whenever a new plan is under development and then a lull where people go about their business, but the points of view and interests presented in the debates are similar. Hell, people fight about building heights in Manhattan sometimes for reasons that would sound familiar to Citizen readers, too.

Last edited by McC; Apr 2, 2012 at 7:22 PM.
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