Latest Westmount redevelopment plan adds density and taller buildings
The consultation on the new version of the mini urban plan, which still calls for several highrises to be built on Ste-Catherine St. W. and Dorchester Blvd., will be held at Victoria Hall because it has a larger capacity than Westmount City Hall, Mayor Christina Smith said this week.
'There's nothing more divisive that brings out a community like development,' she said.
The initial redevelopment proposal for the sector, produced for Westmount by architecture firm Lemay and presented in November 2024, was criticized by several architects and two former mayors of the municipality as 'a wholesale renunciation of Westmount's traditional low-rise, dense urban environment.'
Lemay presented the new version of its plan in May following public comments on the initial design, and Smith says the changes reflect the feedback.
For example, the new version of the Lemay plan reduces the height of a proposed tower at the southwest corner of Atwater and Ste-Catherine, adjacent to Atwater Library, from 25 storeys in the initial plan to 20 storeys. Three other proposed towers lining the south side of Ste-Catherine are now set at 20 storeys, up from 15 storeys in the first version.
The new version also introduces podiums ('basilaires' in French) for several of the towers. The low-rise podiums will allow the towers emerging from them, including along Ste-Catherine, to be set back from the street, Smith said.
'That's a recommendation of many urban planners and architects that will enhance the streetscape and give a setback and more the human scale feel that people talk about,' she said.
The new plan also introduces incentive zoning on two lots in the sector, meaning the possibility of granting bonus floors on those lots to developers if they incorporate features with community benefits in their projects.
One of the lots marked for incentive zoning is a proposed new tower above Alexis-Nihon Plaza, on the north side of Ste-Catherine. The initial version of the Lemay plan set the height at 20 storeys, while the new version calls for 24 storeys and the possibility of building to 29 storeys through incentive zoning.
However, version 2.0 of the Lemay proposal doesn't seem to appease the critics.
'I think it's one of the most consequential decisions to be made in Westmount in a long time because it's changing the character of that area a great deal,' Karin Marks, a former mayor of Westmount, said.
She says she agrees that Ste-Catherine needs to be revitalized, but she disagrees with the approach in the Lemay plan.
The new version doesn't call for social or affordable housing and it doesn't specify what conditions must be met for the incentive zoning and bonus floors, she said. She also notes the minimum floor space for residential units in the sector would be reduced to 550 square feet. That size of unit won't attract families, Marks said.
'And nowhere do I see very clear and measurable goals,' she said.
'Development and densification is not a goal. Is the goal to have more families? Is it to make more money?'
Lynn Verge, the executive director of Atwater Library, contends the new version of the Lemay plan calls for 'even greater densification' than the initial version.
'The revised plan ignores the deluge of comments submitted to the Westmount council on an online form raising objections to the first Lemay report and calling for human-scale densification,' she said.
The plan doesn't require a setback on Atwater for the 20-storey tower proposed at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Atwater and 'would overshadow and diminish the Atwater Library,' Verge said.
Smith countered: 'If anything, the Atwater Library will survive if this neighbourhood gets revitalized.'
Marks and Verge also criticized the municipality for having no studies indicating what additional infrastructure the city will have to build to service about 800 new housing units, such as a new Hydro Westmount substation.
Smith, who has already announced she won't seek re-election in the November municipal election, said the special planning program is expected to go to a vote of city council on Sept. 8.
Marks said she's calling on council to postpone the vote because it's too close to the election.
However, Smith said it has already been a 'very thorough, long consultation process' and the debate over how to revitalize Ste-Catherine has gone on for years. 'I refuse to saddle the next council and the next generation with this same problem.'
This story was originally published June 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM.
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