JOSHUA ALLAN
The 1019 Report
The small town of Vaudreuil sur le Lac has witnessed significant pushback by residents through the past few months over a proposed overhaul of its urban planning regulations, culminating with the town’s promise last month to pause the project and “return to the drawing board.”
“The population does not agree at all with the new vision of the municipal council,” said Claude Pilon, the town’s former mayor and a longtime resident, who has been an outspoken critic of the changes over the past few months. “They want to overhaul zoning (and) permit multi-unit housing, while we don’t want it.”
The proposed changes, presented during a public information session in February, would have indeed seen parts of the small town re-zoned to allow the construction of multi-unit dwellings of between two and three storeys, as well as zoning for commercial usage and a portion of a wooded area close to Highway 40 being partitioned for a new industrial zone.
This would represent a significant change for the small town, which is made up almost entirely of quiet neighbourhoods of single-family houses alongside wooded areas, bordering the Lake of Two Mountains.
The plan, presented by Montreal-based urban planning firm APUR on Feb. 26, listed the town’s objectives with this project, including its vision to “support the development of recreational and tourism activities” as well as to “improve and secure mobility conditions.” The overhaul would also bring the town’s urban planning bylaws in line with the MRC of Vaudreuil-Soulanges’ updated land use and development plan — a requirement for all municipalities in the region.
The pushback by residents on this project was swift. The Feb. 26 information session, as well as public council meetings in March and April, were attended by dozens of residents in the town, which has a population of about 1,350.
“I know that the residents are not happy, because residents (usually) don’t attend municipal council meetings,” Pilon pointed out, having served as mayor from 1998 until 2020.
Attendees at those meetings took turns voicing their disapproval of the plan, explaining that they fear it could change the tranquil identity of their small town. The exchanges sometimes became animated, with those in attendance often applauding points made by speakers against the proposals and attendees occasionally raising their voices when addressing the council.
“We chose to live in Vaudreuil sur le Lac for its tranquility and safety,” explained resident and former councillor Lise Lefort. “We are small (as a town) and we want to stay that way, preserving our tranquility, and that is the primary reason why we, the residents, chose to settle here from the very beginning.”
The debate came to a head at the April 16 council meeting, where Mayor Mario Tremblay opened the meeting by reading a prepared statement, explaining the town would “return to the drawing board in order to see how your comments, your suggestions can be implemented in relation to the municipality’s legal obligations.”
Tremblay also pointed out that the town plans to organize “a new public information session in the coming months.”
The town will “do what the people want in Vaudreuil sur le Lac,” Tremblay said at the meeting, adding: “When the population does not agree, and they have ideas, you need to listen to the population.”
Neither Tremblay nor the town’s urban planning department responded to requests from The 1019 Report for additional comment.
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