City urged to save Mount Royal views from big redevelopment

Preserving views of and from Mount Royal should not be an afterthought as Montreal prepares to redevelop a huge area near downtown that serves as an entrance to the city, Les amis de la montagne says.

A group of builders, landowners and architects is proposing four 40-storey buildings for the area southwest of downtown, between the St. Lawrence River and Mount Royal.

The sector is a 2.3-square-kilometre mostly industrial zone stretching from the Old Port to the Victoria and Champlain bridges. Straddling the downtown Ville-Marie borough and Pointe-St-Charles neighbourhood, the area serves as an entry point to the city from the bridges.

The Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) is currently holding public hearings on a plan for the area.

In its brief, Les amis, a non-profit group that co-ordinates activities and reforestation projects on Mount Royal, urges the OCPM to take into account the view of the mountain when coming up with the principles that should guide the city as it considers plans.

The group wants to make sure city planners “raise their eyes and see how visible Mount Royal is from Bridge-Bonaventure,” Les amis spokesperson Anaïs Légaré-Morasse told me for a story published recently in the Montreal Gazette.

“We know there are going to be many buildings built there and that’s fine, but we think it’s possible for the development of the sector to be made in a way that preserves the connection to Mount Royal.”

Read Les amis’ full brief below: