The City of Beaconsfield is asking to be taken off the province’s updated flood zone map.
The Quebec government issued a draft order on June 17 that puts 813 municipalities and thousands of homes in flood zone areas — now called special intervention zones (ZIS).
In a letter to Quebec’s Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Andrée Laforest, Beaconsfield mayor George Bourelle asked the province to amend the draft order to excludes his City from the ZIS, “since no building in Beaconsfield was flooded in 2017 and 2019.”
READ MORE: Quebec issues moratorium forbidding construction in high-risk flood zones
Close to 200 waterfront properties are now included in the ZIS, which, according to the City, does not reflect the reality on the ground.
In his letter, Bourelle stated Beaconsfield’s intention to oppose the draft order in a resolution that will be adopted at the upcoming city council meeting on Monday.
City officials consider the draft order to be arbitrary and erroneous, and argue the new map will have significant and unjustified impacts on properties, the resolution reads.
Several Pointe-Claire properties in similar situations have already been removed from the new flood-risk zone.
READ MORE: West Island residents, mayors furious over Quebec’s updated flood maps
Along with the release of the maps, the government also imposed a building moratorium that applies to people who are in a zero- to 20-year flood zone or an area that has a one in 20 chance of being flooded every year; People who were flooded in 2017 and 2019; Flood victims whose homes have been damaged 50 per cent or more; New constructions.
At a public consultation held in Pointe-Claire on July 4, hundreds of West Island residents and city officials, including Beaconsfield’s council members, voiced their concerns over the updated flood zone maps.
Officials representing the province said they will take all comments and concerns into consideration and will review their drafts accordingly.
They will adopt their updated drafts in the coming weeks, they said.
— With files from Global News’ Gloria Henriquez
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