A message from the Mayor regarding the Urban Plan

Dear Fellow Lambertans,

The revamping of our city’s Urban Plan has been a priority from the very beginning of my term in November 2021. In fact, our urban planning by-laws dated back to 2008; not only were they obsolete, but they did not allow for any redevelopment. We therefore put our heads together with our teams and experts in the field, held numerous public consultations and presentations, and heeded the needs and concerns of our citizens to come up with a plan that will allow the following: better protection for our environment, our green spaces (parks, golf courses and woodlands), and our trees; the building of bigenerational homes; conversion of roof spaces and attics; restriction of the height of future development projects to six storeys; authorization of sidewalk cafés in winter; simplification of the rules applicable to door and window replacements, colour changes, and residential roof covering products; and so on. We thus adopted a new Urban Plan (with updated versions of the many related by-laws) on July 11, 2022 through a unanimous vote by City Council.

A group of citizens then filed a non-compliance complaint with the Commission municipale du Québec regarding this plan, on the grounds that the zoning by-law was not compliant, given its inclusion of daycare use in Préville Park. The City won the case in a decision rendered by the Commission on November 3, 2022, but it cost us approximately $35,000 in legal fees and urban planning experts’ honoraria to defend ourselves in this dispute.

At the end of November 2022, a disinformation campaign run by this same citizens’ group forced the City to abandon its revamping process, as well as the project of building a daycare in Préville Park.

Despite this, we went back to the drawing boards in January 2023 with all the professionals involved. We then held new public consultations and presentations, even more than in 2022. On September 18, 2023, through a unanimous vote by City Council, we adopted a new Urban Plan (including a few
improvements).

On October 20, 2023, a group of seven citizens – essentially the same as in 2022 – filed another non-compliance complaint with the Commission municipale du Québec regarding our 2023 Urban Plan, for pointless reasons.

This recurrence is once again delaying the coming into force of our new Plan – meaning that no redevelopment plan can get underway – and is wasting the money of Saint-Lambert taxpayers. The costs related to this systematic opposition are high:

• Approximately $35,000 to again cover the costs of contesting the 2023 complaint
• The loss of the following opportunities: collection of development fees of $4,100 for each new door, sales, by the City, of a few of its properties suitable for redevelopment, collection of land transfer fees, collection of municipal taxes arising from new buildings and revitalization of our downtown core.

With a clear political agenda, the same individuals once again launched a disinformation campaign aimed at spreading myths about the new Urban Plan. However, the truth must be told, and the City is busy setting the record straight. I urge you to visit saint-lambert.ca to learn more about the Urban Plan and to untangle the myths that are currently circulating. If you have any questions or comments, please write us at refonte2023@saint-lambert.ca.

Our city has literally been taken hostage. In fact, I have written to Madame Andrée Laforest, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, to draw her attention to the excesses that can result from the prevailing legislative provisions in Québec in matters of urban planning. I truly hope that the Québec government can find a better balance between citizens’ right to be heard and a municipality’s collective interests.

In the meantime, your City Council members continue their efforts. We have a magnificent city that offers us all an exceptional living environment that we hope to maintain and protect. Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,
Pascale Mongrain
Mayor