Plante points to Coderre in the debate on the height of skyscrapers in relation to Mount Royal – Montreal | The Canadian News

At a campaign stop at the foot of Mount Royal, incumbent Mayor Valérie Plante targeted Denis Coderre for expressing her desire to allow skyscrapers taller than Mount Royal to be built.

Since 1912, there has been a rule that no skyscraper can be built higher than Mount Royal, and Plante, the leader of Projet Montréal, says she wants it to stay that way.

You want mountain and mountain views to be protected.

“If we have taller buildings, then we are going to lose that,” Plante said at the foot of the mountain.

He quoted a passage from the book by Ensemble Montréal leader Denis Coderre Find Montreal released earlier this year.

“If we want a world-class center, which grows year after year, we have to exceed the height of the Mount Royal cross with our skyscrapers,” Coderre wrote in the book.

Renowned architect Phyllis Lambert announced her endorsement of Plante and expressed her disdain for the idea of ​​buildings taller than the mountain. He accused Coderre of not understanding that Montreal is an “extraordinary” small city that cannot be compared to London or Paris.

“He is in favor of the great, the greatest and the best. It’s not realistic, ”Lambert said.

“Everybody thinks that’s the right thing to do, but it’s not. There are ways to do it. “

Plante and Lambert say that mountain views are a key part of Montreal’s identity, and Heritage Montreal agrees.

“What is Montreal? It’s an island, it’s a mountain, ”said Taika Baillargeon, Heritage Montreal’s deputy director of policy. “This is what really defines our horizon more than anything else.”

Coderre has backtracked on the words he wrote in his book and is now promoting a consultation on the idea.

“I am concerned about the views and I am concerned about the people who already live here, so the consultation is in order,” he said. “But I do not think that the consultation is the second name of that current administration. “

He has said that taller buildings could be a key way to increase population density in the city center.

“It is not just about housing. It’s about how to make sure people stay and live here, ”Coderre explained Tuesday.

Plante said there are ways to increase density other than building skyscrapers.

“How about we talk about the concept of density? It does not necessarily have to be vertical. There are other ways to do it, ”he said.

McGill’s urban planning professor David Wachsmuth would rather see more small buildings, rather than huge skyscrapers. Even if the rules changed, he doesn’t think companies will build so many skyscrapers that they block views.

“There is not enough demand to justify building a ton of, say, 80-story skyscrapers that would be affected by this rule,” he said.

Lambert said he feels Plante is better equipped to deal with developers, citing the outgoing mayor’s track record of negotiating with them to include social housing in the new buildings.