ILE PERROT – Residents in Ile Perrot, a small city of 11,000 people off the western tip of the island, will soon be filling a vacuum for the region’s aging population.
The city has plans to build a $30 million retirement home on land currently occupied by a now closed Rona hardware store.
Construction is supposed to start in the summer of 2015 with the building ready to open by 2017.
But it comes amid a larger controversy that continues to enrage people who live in the neighborhood.
READ MORE: Ile Perrot residents continue fight for local forest at city council
“We find out, you know, when the dance is over,” Michael Moore said.
Residents complain many city decisions involving urban planning or housing projects are decided with little to no input from the public.
Moore says the decision to give the green light to the senior’s home was no different.
He adds this way of governing epitomizes the way decisions are made.
Moore fears Ile Perrot senior officials, including the mayor, already have plans to allow a massive housing project to be built in a forested area surrounded by single family homes.
“They have announced things when the deal is pretty much done,” he said.
“Then they let us know. They don’t say, we have this idea and you as a citizen or a community who may have a concern about it, would you like to come and talk to us about it?”
City officials insist they’ve never hidden the fact that a housing project was set to eventually be built on the forest.
The land is privately owned and is zoned for residential development.
Ile Perrot’s urban planning director insists decisions are made after consulting the public.
“The people are consulted and we take their considerations into account,” Sébastien Carrière said from his office at city hall on Tuesday.
He says the type of housing project expected to be built in the wooded area will only be made public after first discussing the issue with residents.
READ MORE: Clear cutting begins for new road in Ile-Perrot
Carrière says two types of projects will be presented: a high density condominium project or single family homes.
“It’s not a question of what generates the most revenues (for the city) but what do the people want,” he said.
The new senior’s home to be built off of Don Quichotte boulevard is supposed to generate more than $300,000 of property taxes for the city.
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