Beaconsfield, Que., residents got a chance to see what a revamped Elm Plaza could look like during an information meeting Tuesday evening.
The strip mall was recently sold to a developer who is proposing to turn it into a high-density mixed commercial and residential project.
The project will feature 115 condos or apartments with commercial units at the bottom and 14 townhouses.
Gris Orange Consultants was hired by the developer to conduct the meeting.
“Citizens are given a questionnaire which they fill out with a series of open-ended questions and also multiple choice questions and that data is then submitted directly to the city as part of our public consultation report,” said Pierre Barrieau, co-founder of Gris Orange Consultants.
Some in the area fear the redevelopment project is not a good fit.
Vanessa Angell lives near the mall and fears a high-density structure will bring more traffic to the area, which already struggles with speeding issues.
“We’re sort of a cut-through to Windermere Road to get to Highway 40,” Angell explained. “So if we gave an extra 140, 50, 60 cars, it will be very unsafe.”
The aging strip mall was built in 1978 and while some would like to see it updated, they don’t want to have it replaced with a large-scale project.
“It’s a residential area, the people around don’t want four stories,” said Ike Partington who has lived near the mall for 46 years. “We’re a bedroom community.”
The project is in its very early planning stages and according to Barrieau, still about a year and a half or two years away from being built.
The area is also zoned commercial and would require the city of Beaconsfield to re-zone it to residential.
Barrieau says the developer must take into consideration the feedback of the citizens, look at the market’s needs and then tweak its proposal before it submits it to Beaconsfield city council.
“The city is going to look at what is submitted and is going to look at the report and see if our comments and feedback that we were able to collect from the citizens were sufficiently integrated into the documentation for the file to proceed,” Barrieau said.
The developer was present at the meeting but did not wish to be interviewed.