A new clinic may never see the light of day on The Plateau

Photo CHANTAL POIRIER
Isabelle Girard and Marc de Bellefeuille, are responsible for a new clinic, which should be built on the wasteland behind them, located at the corner of Montgomery and Rachel Is in The Plateau-Mont-Royal. But a policy that is anti-self could be detrimental to the project.

Laurence Houde-Roy

Tuesday, 20 February 2018 23:06

UPDATE
Tuesday, 20 February 2018 23:06

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A project of the family medicine clinic for children is seriously compromised due to the vision anti-automobile of the borough of Plateau-Mont-Royal.

Clinique médicale Angus, on Sherbrooke street East in Montreal, plans over the past year to create a new clubhouse that specialized in the care of children and pregnant women.

The project would be much more relevant than the is of Montreal’s pediatric clinic since last year, and the urgency of the Sainte-Justine hospital is overflowing with young people, argues the director of the project, Marc de Bellefeuille.

The only catch : the program will seek to build 124 indoor parking spaces in their new building located in The Plateau-Mont-Royal, but the borough does not allows that 15.

“We don’t do it for doctors, to patients, to the mothers in the middle of winter that comes with the stroller, the diaper bag,” explains Marc de Bellefeuille.

Limit the self

Despite meetings and e-mail exchanges, project officials and the district do not come to an agreement. The planning department of the district simply responded to the proponent that the project is not consistent with the vision of the sector that wishes to limit the use of the automobile.

“Taking care of sick children who are hyper contagious and you tell me to pick them up in a bus, let them cry and make everyone sick ? This is stupid, ” responded Isabelle Girard, president of the Association of medical clinics in Quebec, who regrets the lack of flexibility of the district.

This is not the first time that The Plateau and its mayor, Luc Ferrandez, make headlines for its decisions to reduce the space given to the automobile.

“As soon as you live a little bit away from the clinic, you are obliged to have a car with a child,” admitted Paul Brunet, of the Council for the protection of the sick.

More uncertain

Given the current requirements of the borough, the developer Jocelyn Huot won’t even see the relevance of their project to elected officials to obtain a permit.

“It’s going to take nearly eight months and many expenses to prepare the documents, so that I do not have the assurance that this will be allowed,” he said.

The office of the mayor, Luc Ferrandez, the issues of the Journal have been transferred to the spokesperson of the borough, Michel Tanguay. The latter, in fact, specifies that it is “extremely unlikely” that elected officials take a decision opposite to those of the district.

The promoter noted that a similar project has been much easier to allow the last fall in the borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension.

Reminder of the decisions of the Plateau

2010

Addition of 600 new parking meters

2011

Several streets became one-way streets or dead ends

2012

The price of parking decals has doubled and they have been established in four new areas

2015

A total of 334 parking spaces with tile have been installed in the area of the Small Laurier, 1356 seats in the district

The project of pediatric clinic

• Nearly 20 physicians, pediatricians and general practitioners were interested to join
• She would have been able to qualify to become a “super clinic” that may accommodate patients who do not have family doctors

The explanations of the borough

“A large number of parking facilities than is provided in your project goes completely against the directions of development preferred by the borough for many years “

– Michaël Tremblay, chief of the division of urban planning, The Plateau-Mont-Royal, in an email sent to the sponsor

“Beyond the number of parking allowed or not, the goal of the district is to reduce dependence on the automobile and focusing on the development of infrastructure for active and public transport “

– Michel Tanguay, communications officer, The Plateau-Mont-Royal, in an email sent to the Journal

“Largely focused on automobile travel, your project is not consistent with the vision of development of the sector of employment of Tea Is “

– Marlene Schwartz, a city planner, The Plateau-Mont-Royal, in an email sent to the sponsor