At a campaign stop at the foot of Mount Royal, incumbent mayor Valérie Plante took aim at Denis Coderre for expressing a desire to allow skyscrapers to be built taller than Mount Royal.
Since 1912, a rule has been in place that no skyscraper can be built taller than Mount Royal, and Plante, the Projet Montréal leader, says she wants it to stay that way.
She wants the views of the mountain and from the mountain to be protected.
“If we have higher buildings, then we’re going to lose that,” Plante said at the foot of the mountain.
She cited a passage in Ensemble Montréal leader Denis Coderre’s book Retrouver Montréal released earlier this year.
“If we want a world class downtown, growing year after year, we need to surpass the height of the Mount Royal cross with our skyscrapers,” Coderre wrote in the book.
Renowned architect Phyllis Lambert announced she’s endorsing Plante, and expressed disdain for the idea of buildings higher than the mountain. She accused Coderre of not understanding that Montreal is an “extraordinary” small city that can’t be compared to the likes of London or Paris.
“He’s all for the big and the bigger and better. It’s not realistic,” Lambert said.
“Everybody thinks that’s the thing to do, but it’s not. There are ways of doing it.”
Plante and Lambert say views of the mountain are a key part of Montreal identity, and Heritage Montreal agrees.
“What is Montreal? It’s an island, It’s a mountain,” said Taika Baillargeon, Heritage Montreal’s assistant policy director. “This is what really defines our skyline more than anything else.”
Coderre has backtracked on the words he wrote in his book, and is now promoting a consultation on the idea.
“I care about the views and I care about the people who are living already here, so consultation is in order,” he said. “But I don’t think that consultation is the middle name of that current administration.”
He has said that higher buildings could be a key way to increase population density downtown.
“It’s not just talking about housing. It’s talking about how to make sure that people remain and live here,” Coderre explained on Tuesday.
Plante said there are ways to increase density other than building skyscrapers.
“How about we talk about the the the concept of density? It doesn’t have to be necessarily vertical. There’s other ways to do it,” she said.
McGill urban planning professor David Wachsmuth would prefer to see more small buildings, as opposed to huge skyscrapers. Even if the rules were to change, he doesn’t believe companies would build so many skyscrapers that views would be blocked.
“There’s not enough demand to justify building a whole ton of, say, 80-storey skyscrapers that would be impacted by this rule,” he said.
Lambert said she feels Plante is better equipped to deal with developers, citing the outgoing mayor’s record of negotiating with them to include social housing in new buildings.