It’s something thousands of Pointe-Claire residents have been waiting to hear for a long time — a commitment from the city’s top political law makers to revitalize the Valois Village and attract new businesses.
A public forum on redeveloping the eclectic business and residential neighbourhood was held in the basement of the Church of the Resurrection on Mount-Pleasant Avenue Tuesday night.
Dozens arrived with ideas to turn the village into a new destination area for people living in Pointe-Claire and beyond.
“I’d like to see flowers, trees, a lot more green. I’d like to see some continuity in the buildings that are there,” Pointe-Claire resident Marna Pennell told Global News.
There’s an 18 percent vacancy rate among businesses in the district, not to mention the undeveloped piece of land that sits next to Sources Boulevard.
Some merchant owners say work to improve the area and attract new businesses and customers should begin now.
“They need to fix the roads, fix the neighborhood by beautifying it and just repairing where there’s cracks and holes and missing benches and there’s rust and graffiti etched on a tunnel,” Paul Bassily, owner of Hawaii Ice told Global News.
Ideas like burying the Hydro-Quebec utility lines, rebuilding new red brick sidewalks, changing the lamp posts and encouraging businesses to upgrade their store fronts are all options on the table.
But none of this will occur overnight.
“It’s not a project that we’re going to decide over a period of three months and do it in one or two years. It’s a ten to fifteen year project,” Pointe-Claire Mayor Morris Trudeau told Global News.
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