Bruno Cognyl-Fournier moved into the Handfield Circle in Dorval over two decades ago as he was looking to start a family.
Now, a recent development trend has him worried his own son won’t be able to afford a home in the neighbourhood he grew up in.
“I’m personally concerned about finding more and bigger houses in the neighbourhood, which will render the access to property for middle-income earners pretty much not possible,” Cognyl-Fournier said.
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The quiet, residential neighbourhood was built in the 1950s and consists almost entirely of small brick bungalows, but this is starting to change.
“The trend we see is that there are a lot of older people heading into retirement and as they sell their houses, what’s happening is the house is getting bought and it gets built into what we call McMansions,” area resident Teresa Glawdecki said.
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Last year, a bungalow was bought and demolished to make way for a large, two-storey home, which stands in stark contrast to the others around it.
“To me, this does not fit in with the single-storey bungalow look we have everywhere else,” Glawdecki said.
Beyond the aesthetics, residents are concerned that this trend will eventually render the area unaffordable.
West Island real estate specialist Jay Deakin said while these big new homes may increase the property value of the older homes around them, they could bring one major problem.
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“The tax roll is based off the value of the surrounding properties,” Deakin told Global News.
“So, once you have a few of these homes in there, the smaller houses are affected by the value of their surrounding properties, so their marginal tax rate could go up.”
Another demolition notice was posted down the street last week.
Though it isn’t clear what will be built in its place, Glawdecki and other residents said they fear the worst and are contesting the demolition.
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“They have 10 days from the time the public notice has been published,” explained Sebastien Gauthier, communications officer for the City of Dorval.
“It was published back on Aug. 18, so they have until Aug. 28 to write to the city clerk the reasons why they oppose the demolition.”
A special demolition committee will review resident concerns before making a final decision on the demolition.
“Unless the demolition is absolutely necessary because of dangerous architecture and things like that, I don’t see the point,” Cognyl-Fournier said.
“I mean, things can be renovated, things can be up-scaled a little bit.”
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If Glawdecki and Cognyl-Fournier get their way, the neighbourhood will be spruced up, not torn down.
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