The City of Montreal wants to revitalize part of eastern Lachine over the next 20 years.
Executive committee member Éric Caldwell and Lachine Mayor Maja Vodanovic announced on Wednesday that Montreal’s public consultation office will soon be asking for the public’s ideas for the 50-hectre area.
“They want it to be the best development,” she said.
“This is land that Canada was built on, now that land is dead and they want to bring it back to life.”
The highly industrialized area sits between the Lachine Canal to the south, Victoria Street to the north, 6th Avenue to the west and the Canadian Pacific railway line to the east.
It was the home of the historic Dominion Bridge Company that built, among many projects across Canada, the Champlain Bridge.
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What the new sector will look like will be up to residents, but Lachine’s mayor says there is room for 4,500 units for both housing and small business offices.
Officials want the public to also help decide what green spaces and public areas they want created in the re-vamped urban neighbourhood.
The entire 20 year project is contingent on the ability to decontaminate parts of the industrial sector.
“We have to be reassured about the decontamination of all the soil so that the housing will be safe and on good soil,” said Caldwell.
Montreal’s public consultation office will decide when and where hearings will be held.