The City of Montreal is launching a pilot project in four boroughs to deploy its new “action plan” which aims to simplify the administrative processes that complicate and unduly delay real estate projects.
Announced Wednesday at an event of the Institut du développement urbain du Québec, this municipal administration action plan stems from the work carried out over the past two years by an advisory committee made up of representatives from the real estate sector, municipal authorities and neighborhood community settings.
This action plan targets four main objectives for the administration of the City of Montreal: to speed up the authorization process for real estate projects, to optimize the consultation process for local stakeholders and citizens, to give predictability of deadlines to real estate developers and “significantly” improve the administrative follow-up with property developers.
The pilot project of this action plan will be carried out in four boroughs: Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Ville-Marie (downtown), Sud-Ouest and LaSalle. It will also affect the Namur-Hippodrome sector, where real estate redevelopment projects on the vast grounds of the former Blue Bonnets racecourse are still slow to materialize.
In the opinion of Luc Rabouin, responsible for economic and commercial development on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, “the action plan is a direct response to the challenges that are hindering the development [immobilier] to Montreal “.
“The labor shortage and the increase in construction and financing costs are global challenges over which the City has little control. But the actions we put in place [avec ce projet-pilote] will allow us to offer more predictability [aux promoteurs immobiliers], to reduce project approval times, to resolve problematic situations, to optimize the consultative process and to instil a reflex of quality and efficiency in collaboration with real estate developers. »
For his part, the main representative of the real estate sector on the advisory committee formed two years ago, Roger Plamondon, president of the major Groupe immobilier Broccolini, was delighted with “this first step in four boroughs, which allows us to hope that this action plan will be implemented as soon as possible in all the boroughs of the city of Montreal”.
According to Mr. Plamondon, “the advisory committee has already done useful work [depuis deux ans] by identifying clear directions to respond to the housing crisis: speeding up the planning and approval processes for real estate projects, while reducing uncertainty about the results of these processes”.
Consequently, anticipates Roger Plamondon, “by clarifying everyone’s expectations and roles, we optimize the chances of carrying out new projects at a time when the housing crisis requires a vigorous response”.
A few “flagship measures” of Montréal’s real estate action plan
– Simplify the gateways to major real estate projects with the City by appointing a “project leader” in the municipal administration.
– Optimize processes and develop a critical path by type of project, with a schedule of project processing steps.
– Improve the understanding of real estate project stakeholders of the roles and responsibilities of the various advisory bodies, in order to better define everyone’s actions and draw inspiration from good consultation practices.
– Support strategic real estate projects for the development of the territory with the creation of a committee for the acceleration of real estate development (decision-making) which is steered by the general management of the City and the borough departments concerned.
– Transform the city’s organizational culture: see real estate projects as an essential means of building complete and inclusive neighborhoods in order to contribute to the influence and prosperity of the metropolis.
Source: office of the mayor and the executive committee, Ville de Montréal
