An aerial view of Phase 1 of the Urbania Residential Project. Corner of Souvenir and Le Corbusier. The project takes up an area of 265,000 square feet. To the 3 buildings of four stories will be added six others of 8, 10, or 11 floors.
(Photo: Martin Alarie Courrier Laval)
Urbania will double residential density
Condominium project near Montmorency metro station
The Groupe Le Versant Immobilier is fueled by some grand ambitions concerning the development of the housing project neighbouring the Montmorency terminus.
According to a zone change requested of city hall, the real estate developer intends to nearly double the residential density initially projected for Urbania, raising the total number of units from 312 to 580.
Inaugurated with great pomp in autumn of 2003, the co-ownership complex originally envisaged nine buildings of four to five floors each. At present, three five-story buildings border on Le Corbusier Boulevard, the last of these, the work on which was begun 18 months ago, comprises 40 units.
Eleven-story towers
If the rest of the project goes according to plans submitted to the city’s executive committee, six more buildings will rise at the site - two high rises of 8 floors, two others of 10, and still another couple of 11 floors. In all, 31 additional floors will rise into the sky of a developing downtown area of Laval.
The revised residential project points to a major shift in direction from the original plan introduced two years ago.
That plan called for three high rises of 11 and 12 stories for a clientele of senior citizens. But the proposal ran up against opposition from property owners of the building located at the intersection of Le Corbusier and du Souvenir.
These people deplored the fact that their (six-story) building would be plunged into the shadows of a much higher structure (at 11 or 12 stories) and that the horizon would give the impression that there was a concrete wall just about 100 feet from their property. “This wasn’t the quality of life or the environment promised me when I bought my unit," one of the people complained to Courrier Laval. For a completely different reason, the project never materialized.
Zoning change
The request for a zoning change was on the agenda of the public consultation meeting held last week. Although the current zoning regulations allow for family units of four stories and up, without limits at the top end, "this increase in population density would render the project outside certain norms, such those related to viable, open, and recreational spaces," specified the director of the city's Urban Department to the Ville de Laval Executive Committee. Which explains the current measure to render the project in comformity with zoning regulations regarding parking spaces and garbage disposal depots.
While the city is favourable to the idea of reducing the minimum number of parking places for each apartment to 1.25, it objects to the reduction of area for garbage depots. @ST:Population density
The Vaillancourt administration is clearly in favour of increasing the population density in this area which features a metro station, a large bus terminus, as well as commercial and public activities.
"An increase in population density of this magnitude is consistent with new concepts of urban planning – Transit Oriental Development (TOD) – related to new trends in urbanism and to Smart Growth in the United States and Europe," maintains the Laval Urban Department.
"These new concepts foster the intensification of population development around focal points of public transit systems, reducing the dependency of residents on the automobile."
At the public consultation meeting the by-laws concerning certain conditions related to implementation, parking, re-organization of exterior spaces and the management of recoverable materials went through without a hitch.
Photo: Urbania
(Photo: Martin Alarie Courrier Laval)
Météo: Laval, 18 juillet 2008 / 19°C
/ Couvert
/ Vents: 11 Km/h / Humidité relative: 88 % 
Steven Guilbeault - Chronique environnement
Richard Cléroux - Le fouineur politique
