Westmount 2018-

Westmount mayor hopes allowing highrises will spur development
By Michelle Lalonde
…in an interview with The Gazette on Friday, Smith said the current height restrictions, in place for the past decade, have produced no successful development in the sector. She was elected in 2017 on a promise to revitalize the southeast sector and attract new residents. “We have heard overwhelmingly from people that Ste-Catherine St. is a place where they would accept some densification, because if you look all around it, on the north side, there is height. We have some incredible buildings. Westmount Square is something we can be incredibly proud of in our community. We have a huge building at 1 Wood. A lot of people who live at 1 Wood have downsized or this is the housing size they want. They want to live in a condominium.” During consultations, surveys and workshops on the issue held over the past year, she said one thing most people seem to agree on is something has to be done to improve the eastern entrance to Westmount, particularly the rundown sector of Ste-Catherine St. W. west of Atwater and the field of parking lots north of Dorchester Blvd. Height allowances on the south side of Ste-Catherine St. W. were upped from three to seven storeys in 2014, she noted, yet this has not worked to attract investors.

Atwater Library supporters urged to speak out on proposed tower
By Michelle Lalonde
In a hastily organized online conference Wednesday, two experts on heritage and urban development urged lovers of the Atwater Library and anyone favouring family-friendly and “human-scale” development of the southeast sector of Westmount to speak out against a proposal to allow a 25-storey tower to be built on the corner of Ste-Catherine St. and Atwater Ave. Lynn Verge, executive director of the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, moderated an online question-and-answer session with more than 150 participants, during which she urged citizens of Westmount and Montreal to share their views on the plan via an online form on the City of Westmount’s website by Wednesday’s deadline. The original deadline for comments was Dec. 31, but was extended after critics pointed out the public was not made aware of the proposal until early December. Verge also urged those concerned about the plan to attend and ask questions at Westmount’s next city council meeting, scheduled for Monday, Jan. 13.
“Our building and our role as a community hub has not been properly recognized,” Verge told the meeting. “We have written the City of Westmount’s director of urban planning offering to contribute to a new planning process for human-scale redevelopment that complements the Atwater Library and so that members of our community are better informed about what’s at stake.”
YouTube of Wednesday’s online discussion with Dinu Bumbaru and Julia Gersovitz:
Westmount SE and the Atwater Library: Dinu Bumbaru and Julia Gersovitz with Q&A – Jan. 8, 2025
Related:
Affichage du rapport et des recommandations de la Société AGIL concernant le secteur sud-est
2 octobre 2018
Commandé par la Ville de Westmount, ce rapport a été rédigé par Clément Demers, directeur général de la Société AGIL. M. Demers est largement reconnu comme un expert dans son domaine. Il est architecte, urbaniste, gestionnaire de projets professionnel et médiateur agréé. Il a passé 15 ans de carrière à la Ville de Montréal où il a occupé des postes tels que directeur adjoint de l’aménagement urbain et directeur adjoint du logement et du développement urbain.

2024

10-16 December
Opinion: Development plan for Westmount’s southeast sector must be rejected
Julia Gersovitz, Karin Marks and Peter F. Trent
Westmount’s southeast sector is home to valuable heritage buildings, like the Atwater Library, above, that deserve protection, write Julia Gersovitz, and former Westmount mayors Karin Marks and Peter F. Trent.
Damage from poor planning can affect a neighbourhood for generations. The southeast sector of Westmount is a case in point. In 1960, Westmount city council embarked on a disastrous rethink of the area bounded by Clarke Ave., Ste-Catherine St., Atwater Ave. and the railway tracks. As a start, from Ste-Catherine to Dorchester Blvd., city blocks of perfectly viable houses were reduced to rubble. The street pattern was interrupted, creating dead-ends and traffic arteries.
We can only be grateful that citizen action halted this ill-conceived renewal scheme. Otherwise, the parking lots that exist along and north of Dorchester would have extended down to the railway tracks and wiped out all the small-scale housing that defines the north-south streets from Clandeboye to Hallowell Aves.
Now, the architecture firm Lemay has produced a plan that resuscitates the intentions of the 1960s plan, including the construction of highrise towers, either seemingly plunked down arbitrarily, or lining Ste-Catherine.
Instead, we propose a counter-vision that creates a sense of place and leans into Westmount’s strengths: its residential charm, human scale, landmark buildings, tree canopies and gardens. This would accommodate families, housed in four- to seven-storey apartment buildings, with three and four bedrooms, terrasses and intimately scaled play spaces at street level. Our vision reconnects this sector into the fabric of our city. It is based on simple principles.
First, this sector must accommodate a greater density than the area to its south or west. This needs to be calibrated to repair the rupture with the surrounding residential neighbourhood. Higher density in itself cannot be an objective, because it rarely produces welcoming spaces.
Consider as an example, the Montreal Children’s Hospital redevelopment. In 2017, the City of Westmount publicly opposed the project, stating: “In our view, this project turns its back on heritage, adds no real green space, and does nothing to attract young families. And above all, the buildings proposed are egregiously too tall … massive modern behemoths whose very height causes them to thumb their noses at any remaining older low-rise buildings.”
Yet Westmount city council is now poised to embrace a similar design and density within its own territory.
Second, this sector has valuable heritage buildings, like the Atwater Library, that deserve protection. They deserve enhanced settings and new neighbours compatible in scale. In contrast, the Lemay study states that developers often view heritage buildings as constraints and “prohibitive to real-estate projects.” The illustrations showcase examples of façadism, where only the facades of a heritage building are wallpapered onto a much bigger building.
Third, this sector should be reintegrated into the existing street grid. Reduce the width of Dorchester to calm traffic, provide more square footage for buildings and accommodate greenery.
Fourth, the sector needs streets lined by appropriately scaled buildings, shaded by trees. Westmount streets below The Boulevard are composed of closely spaced houses and apartment buildings, differing slightly in scale, and all contributing to the streetscapes. This idea must be at the forefront of the planning process.
Finally, public parks, which are costly to build and maintain, should be planned judiciously. In an area rich in public green spaces immediately south of Dorchester, there is no demonstrated need for another civic space. This just forces other parts of the sector to take greater density and higher buildings. Lemay’s civic spaces would be forecourts to the private towers that surround them. A comparison is the podium of Westmount Square. Is that an inviting public space? Public spaces should belong to all.
Lemay’s proposals, which laud the “great redevelopment potential” of this area, are a wholesale renunciation of Westmount’s traditional low-rise, dense urban environment. Instead, we need to seize this opportunity to create a community, fostering spaces and places for families. Nothing less is acceptable.

On its website, Westmount invites residents to share their comments on this project. Please do so before the Dec. 31 deadline.
https://engage.westmount.org/en/project/westmount-southeast/

Julia Gersovitz, Officer of the Order of Canada and Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, is a professor at McGill’s School of Architecture and a former chairperson of Westmount’s Planning Advisory Committee. Karin Marks and Peter F. Trent are former mayors of Westmount.

Atwater Library at risk if Westmount allows 25-storey tower next door, board says
Atwater Library has weathered a lot of changes to the streetscape around it over the last century, but the institution’s directors say their heritage building will be threatened if Westmount accepts a proposal to permit construction of a 25-storey tower next door to it.
“It is the little library scared of the behemoth,” Bruce Bolton, who presides over the board of directors, said of seeing the proposal for the 25-storey tower in a document rendered public on Westmount’s website several days ago.
The document was produced by the architecture firm Lemay, which was hired by Westmount to accompany it in drafting a new urban plan for the southeast sector of the municipality bordering downtown Montreal.
The three-storey Beaux-Arts style building belonging to the Atwater Library and Computer Centre at Atwater Ave. and Tupper St., across the street from Cabot Square, is a declared National Historic Site of Canada. It was built by the Mechanics’ Institute of Montreal between 1918 and 1920, almost a century after that organization began in 1828.
Westmount is in the process of developing a special planning program — known in French as a Programme particulier d’urbanisme (PPU) — for the sector bounded by Dorchester Blvd., Ste-Catherine St. W., Atwater and Clarke Ave., plus a section that stretches to Dawson College, between Atwater and Wood Ave.
Diagrams in the document that followed two public consultations organized by Westmount show the proposal for a 25-storey structure at the southwest corner of Ste-Catherine and Atwater. The site currently has a one-storey building that once housed a McDonald’s and a Japanese restaurant and is temporarily being used by an organization that serves the unhoused population.
The lot is across the street from Alexis-Nihon Plaza but also just beside the Atwater Library. Continuing west along Ste-Catherine, adjacent to the 25-storey tower, the heights proposed for new constructions reach 15 storeys.
In a letter to Westmount’s director of urban planning last week, Bolton and library executive director Lynn Verge state that a 25-storey tower next door “would not only overshadow our building but also jeopardize its structural integrity.”
Bolton said he worries that pounding footings into the ground to support a 25-storey structure would affect the foundation and structure of Atwater Library. The library invested $5 million over 10 years to restore and upgrade the building. Two-thirds of the investment came from private donations.

Worth waiting for?
23 April – 17 October
Westmount Park playground reopens on October 21
On October 21, the playground at Westmount Park will officially reopen following major repairs and updates. Mayor Christina M. Smith, members of the municipal council and City representatives will be present for a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. and all are invited to discover the updated space.
Some of the upgrades to the playground include additional swings, a new accessible play structure for younger kids, a new zipline, as well as redesigned rest areas with more seating and tables. Existing elements of the playground that were added in recent years were maintained or repurposed, and pathways were redesigned and repaired.
Closing the playground for the entire summer? What is wrong with this picture?
Westmount Park playground closed for upgrades until late October 2024
Several upgrades will be brought to the children’s playground in Westmount Park. Work will begin on April 29 and is scheduled until the end of October 2024. During this period, the playground will be closed. The planned upgrades include work on the walking trails, as well as changes to park furniture and playground equipment. Some existing elements of the playground that were added more recently will be maintained.

4 June
The “new” lights under the three waterfalls of the Westmount Park lagoon have been de-activated by the city since the evening of June 4 after a popular outcry.

27 May
The Westmount Park pond will be partially emptied for necessary electrical work
The Westmount Park pond will be drained to allow for electrical work necessary for lighting installations. The work will take place during the week of May 27 and the pond will be filled again once the work is completed.
The upper levels of the pond will not be emptied to allow the ducks to have enough water to float.

2021

15 June UPDATES:
Letters to the Westmount Independent (page 8)
Can’t the mayor be philanthropic? It was disheartening to read in last week’s letter (June 1, p. 9) from John Aylen, president of the Atwater Library board of directors, his mention that Westmount mayor Smith – presumably in response to the 30-percent cut in funding for the library – that “the city is not in the business of philanthropy.” Given that the dictionary defines philanthropy as “the desire to pro-mote the welfare of others,” and that the word is synonymous with showing public spirit and being kindly disposed, one wonders indeed where her focus lies on this issue. … -Richard Orlando
Can’t the council share the Stantec comments (anonymously)? The city refuses to release a synopsis of the comments from the survey on the Stantec design proposal for Westmount Park. Councillor Lulham, at the June 7 council meeting, claimed that residents were not asked to waive confidentiality when doing the survey. This is completely disingenuous. No one remotely wants their names, just an honest assessment of what residents said. Stantec provided an excellent summary of comments following the consultations more than a year ago. While in the most recent survey, residents concluded they were generally satisfied with the proposed Stantec design, they again qualified their approval with comments and suggestions for improvement. We have a right to know these views…. -Denis Biro

1 June
Mayor, four councillors express intent to run again
Only Lulham a definitive ‘no’
(Westmount Independent) Looking ahead to the November 7 election, Mayor Christina Smith and most of the current councillors appear ready to run again in their respective districts – as far as they know at this time. Almost all told the Independent last week that it was too far ahead to officially declare their candidacies though District 7 councillor Cynthia Lulham has already announced she will not seek re-election after 25-plus years.

20 May 2021
Bill 96: message from the mayor of Westmount
Along with the pandemic, I expect this Bill will dominate our public discourse for the remainder of the year as it touches almost every aspect of our lives, from education to health and social services, our courts, our businesses and of course, our municipalities. The debate over the coming months is about the Quebec we wish to build together, and I encourage everyone to participate with passion and civility. Let’s do our best to listen to each other, understand each other’s fears and aspirations, and build consensus.

17 April
Venerable Atwater Library issues a call to arms
City of Westmount’s annual supporting grant slashed by more than 30%
By Richard Conrad
(Westmount Magazine) Friends and supporters of the Atwater Library are being urged to take up arms – figuratively speaking – in the wake of Westmount City Council’s recent decision to drastically reduce the charitable organization’s annual supporting grant. This blow exacerbates the unprecedented strain on our finances resulting from the prolonged COVID pandemic, which has left many grass-roots organizations bereft of revenues and struggling to simply cover operating costs.
Our Atwater Library Board members and management team were understandably taken aback to learn in early April that our annual supporting grant has been slashed by more than 30%, from $37,500 in 2020 to just $25,560 for 2021 (with no consultation or forewarning). That’s down sharply from a recent peak of $39,000 in 2018.
To add insult to injury, this Council has also discontinued the practice of the previous administration of awarding special grants to offset significant hikes in our property taxes ($14,300 in 2021 compared to $8,300 in 2015 – a 72% increase) and hefty construction permit fees stemming from the on-going conservation and upgrading of our century-old headquarters, which is perched on Westmount’s eastern flank at the intersection of Atwater Avenue and Tupper Street.

6 March
What else is wrong with Westmount Park /3
The 2009 Fauteux Report on the park commissioned by the City confirmed Westmount Park had already reached saturation capacity and lack of available adjacent land prevents Westmount from ameliorating that situation. Judging from the visible absence of ongoing park maintenance, it’s also possible Westmount is not spending the requisite monies needed for additional park upkeep since in recent years many residents feel a substantial part of what’s visibly wrong with the park is the lack of maintenance of the land and its structures (the greenhouses, the comfort station, the gazebo, the paths, etc.).
… Westmount’s current Commissioner of Parks, Councillor Cynthia Lulham, is telling residents, “No trees will be cut down or sacrificed for the proposed new pedestrian pathway.” This seems hard to fathom as some residents have counted +/-20 trees in the region of the existing cycle path that could conceivably be at risk if this new combination cycle-pedestrian path goes ahead. To claim no existing trees will be affected seems magical thinking at best and outright disinformation at worst. Or are we just not getting the complete picture?
Frankly, the 2020-21 Stantec Westmount Park revitalization plan needs a major re-think.

27 February
What’s wrong with Westmount Park /2
A discussion of the 2020-21 Revitalization Plan for Westmount Park
By Wanda Potrykus
(Westmount Magazine) there is not a great deal wrong with our park that a substantial amount of long-overdue expenditure and maintenance wouldn’t fix. That said, the approach proposed by our Westmount City Council seems to infer it needs a rather substantial and costly fix. Or, as the City of Westmount’s website euphemistically refers to it, a revitalization as in “The Westmount Park Revitalization Project”. But is the ‘revitalization’ plan currently under discussion and proposed by the City-hired consultants, Stantec, really the solution Westmounters and other park visitors require?
Should you have your own opinions as to what’s wrong or right about Westmount Park, you can comment on the City website and/or below this article, as well as by signing and/or commenting on the online NatureScene: Support Nature in Westmount Park Now petition.

20 February
What’s right with Westmount Park /1
A discussion of the 2020-21 Revitalization Plan for Westmount Park
By Wanda Potrykus
(Westmount Magazine) Like a much-loved friend, our park needs an ongoing, healthy dose of TLC
Despite the Stantec ‘Revitalization’ Plan currently on the Council table (and the City website), which gives the impression the whole park has to be dug up and ‘revisualized’ and ‘revitalized’ at considerable cost for 21st century Westmount citizens and visitors, there’s a lot that’s still very A-okay with Westmount’s namesake central park that a concerted amount of ongoing maintenance would ameliorate considerably without destroying what many of us already love and appreciate.

Westmount Magazine looks back at 2019
A sampling of our most-read articles of the past year
No 1
Westmounters discuss the future of Westmount Park
What exactly is in store for the city’s largest and most beloved park?
By Patricia Dumais
The City of Westmount tendered a contract for a Feasibility Study – Westmount Park Rehabilitation (Étude de faisabilité – réfection du parc Westmount) to Stantec Experts-Conseils on April 1, 2019. The city has yet to specify the exact nature of the rehabilitation, except that it was mentioned at a recent council meeting that the ponds’ membranes are leaking.
With the announcement of an upcoming Public Consultation on Westmount Park on Wednesday, November 13, WestmountMag.ca invited long-time Westmount residents Brigitte St-Laurent (BSL), Marilynn Gillies (MG) and Patrick Barnard (PB) to discuss their concerns. All three live in close proximity to Westmount Park and have been passionate users over the years.