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Hours before the grand opening of the Royalmount megamall, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante bemoaned a lack of housing in the Town of Mount Royal development.

“I’m just very disappointed a city would choose just not to move forward when the developer was ready to build,” Plante told reporters in a Wednesday morning news conference.

Set to open Thursday morning, Royalmount has gone through several planning incarnations since first proposed in 2015, with 6,000 housing units, and then 4,500 units proposed. All housing, however, has so far been blocked by the Town of Mount Royal, which holds the jurisdiction for urban planning in that spot. More phases of the development are in the planning stages, however.

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Andrew Lutfy, the CEO of Royalmount builder Carbonleo, indicated he still has hope of coming to terms with T.M.R. to build housing in the future, and Plante said she hopes that becomes reality.

“Why it’s important, is when you create almost a neighbourhood, people stay on site, so it decreases congestion and it supports the need for housing,” she said, adding that building housing will also help alleviate the city’s housing shortage.

“Hopefully, Town of Mount Royal will get it that they are part of a bigger (picture), that they’re on an island where the housing crisis is important. Congestion is important, so we have to do everything we can as elected officials not to increase the problem, but to participate (in the solution).”

Speaking to The Gazette last year, T.M.R. Mayor Peter Malouf said he’s not discounting all future housing developments, but the ones that were proposed so far did not meet T.M.R.’s urban planning standards.

“I want to see the project work, but I haven’t found any arguments that can justify putting residents in there,” Malouf said in an interview. “I don’t see as of now, and council doesn’t see as well, that there’s a real benefit to the quality of life of the residents of T.M.R. to having residential units in an industrial sector. You have to end up building a city within a city.”

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Reached on Wednesday, Malouf said in an emailed statement that “there are several complex and impactful factors that need to be considered with all the stakeholders of T.M.R. in mind. Even after T.M.R. thoroughly evaluated the concept of residential in an industrial sector, and due to the considerations previously stated, the Town is not reconsidering its stance at this time.”

Plante added she is also concerned the new mall will worsen traffic in the area.

Reacting to such criticism, Carbonleo has already spent about $100 million to widen the Côte-de-Liesse service road and build a pedestrian walkway linking to the de la Savane métro station on the Orange Line.

“This is a good thing,” Plante said, “knowing that this area is one of the worst in Canada. (Royalmount) is going to create congestion. So, of course, I am inviting all Montrealers to go shopping, but use the métro.”

Claude Marcotte, the executive vice-president of Carbonleo, told The Gazette this year that if the city is really concerned about traffic congestion, it should go ahead with the long-delayed extension of Cavendish Blvd., which would run north-south, just west of the Royalmount development. Adding another north-south artery would greatly help traffic flow and allow the city to unclog an area destined for housing development, Marcotte said.

He said the Cavendish link is also key to fulfilling the city’s ambitions to build 20,000 housing units in the nearby Namur-Hippodrome sector.

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