Posted at 5:00 am
Eric Pierre Champagne The press
A residue
The CMM has adopted two Provisional Control Regulations (RCI) aiming to increase the proportion of natural environments on its territory. The goal of the Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan (PMAD) is to protect 17% of the territory by 2031. However, the CMM has been stagnating at 10.1% for years.
The gap to be made up is significant, especially as experts now recommend a target of 30% by 2030. A first ROI was therefore decided unanimously last April. This prohibits any development in forests and wetlands of interest throughout the CMM area. This increased the proportion of protected areas to 22.3%. The ordinance was approved by the Quebec government, as was another RCI aimed at protecting six former golf courses with the potential for conversion to green space, which was approved last June.
Already 11 disputes
According to a compilation by La Presse, 11 lawsuits have already been filed against the two ordinances in the Quebec Supreme Court. It was Senator and real estate developer Paul Massicotte who opened the ball by appearing in one on April 18. Two of his companies, Sommet Prestige Canada and Sommet Prestige Properties, own land in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville on the south coast in an area called Boise des Hirondelles. A “large part” of the country has been included in the list of natural environments of interest envisaged in the new CMM regulations. Several other lawsuits were filed against the two regulations in June and July, some even before they officially came into force.
An illegal settlement?
On July 11, the Domaine Champêtre golf club in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines filed a request for judicial review to declare the RCI for natural environments “illegal”. The company, owned by Martin Lamarre, operates a semi-private golf club and owns adjacent land designated for residential development adjacent to the golf course. The golf course and adjacent lands have been integrated into the interesting natural setting of the CMM.
Specifically, the motion filed by Mr. Lamarre’s attorneys argues that “the designation of the golf course as a natural area of interest is incorrect, unjustifiable and inappropriate given that it is an active golf course and not a natural area of metropolitan interest.” . The document also argues that “the ultimate goal is more likely to freeze all development until the expropriation law is amended to allow communities to acquire the land in question at a reduced cost.”
“Advancing the Case”
In an interview with La Presse, Martin Lamarre points out that “only a small part of the country” still needs to be subdivided. He adds that he is not a real estate developer and his priority remains operating the golf course, which he acquired with other partners in 2020.
Regarding the Superior Court action, Mr. Lamarre points out that his lawyers warned him about the new settlement. “It could prevent me from running my golf course. This is the only process presented to us. It seems that this is the only way to move the file forward,” he adds.
Mr Lamarre’s lawyer, Me Nikolas Blanchette, declined to comment “given the legal process and out of respect for the authority of the courts”. The CMM also refuses to comment on the file, but its spokeswoman, Julie Brunet, indicates that the sector in question is among the forests and forest corridors designated in the PMAD since 2012, the MRC’s development plan.
Cities doomed to overpay?
“The real problem here is that we are in a climate catastrophe and a biodiversity crisis,” argues lawyer Jean-François Girard, who is also a biologist. He specifies that cities essentially have access to two tools to protect parts of their territory: the regulatory route or the acquisition of land, by mutual consent or through expropriation.
However, without a revision of the expropriation law, the cities are doomed to pay sums that are three times the market value of the land, says the municipal officer for environmental law. “And when they make regulations, they are challenged by the promoters. Either way, it costs taxpayers a lot of money. In this context, cities act responsibly,” concludes Me Girard.
Learn more
284 hectares The six golf courses protected by the new regulations have a total area of 284 hectares. According to the CMM, they are all located in areas “where the available space is sufficient to accommodate population growth through 2041.”
CMM
6.5% degree of connectivity between natural environments in the greater Montréal area in 2010, compared to 45% in 1966.
SOURCE: REPORT ON THE STATUS OF EIGHT SPECIES IN PRECARIOUS SITUATION IN THE GREATER MONTREAL AREA