Station Fairview-Pointe-Claire

The new terminus has 19 gates, the current terminus only has 10 gates within the loop, not including the overflow of bus stop onto the street

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Even if we include them I think we’re at like 13-14 total so 19 is really nice

What’s gonna matter is how the stm redo is bus network.

At least the exo bus will not exist anymore here im going to assume

Yeah tho with how they’re cutting service I fear it’ll be bad…

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Yea that’s the unfortunate part… And why I’m begging to get bixi in the west island to be able to get to the rem one way or another.

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Yeah me too, it would be fantastic

Tho with the current mayor of Pierrefonds I don’t know if we’ll really see them here soon

All i know is that dorval is getting 5 stations aka 50 bikes this year and it’s already confirmed… Just where tho?

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I’m just hopping that dorval taking the first step will incentive the rest of the west to do the same.

We really have BEAUTIFUL bike paths already called the lakeshore… Knows as véloroute 5

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Yeah

Pierrefonds mayor wants Bixi to be near parks
While Bixi want them to be in residential neighborhoods around the REM stations, but the mayor doesn’t like that as people would have to bike on Gouin to go at Sunnybrooke and the infrastructure is not great to go to Roxboro either

I think parks could work in some contexts. Most of the subdivisions west of Sources have parks and a school in the center.

That’s just it, Bixi would have a hard time being considered “active transit” up near our two stations on the DM branch.

Plenty of people cycle along the Pierrefonds Boulevard bike path, though virtually all “bike lanes” leading to it from side streets are merely sharrows (painted bicycle symbols with arrows on the pavement in the middle of the “shared” road traffic lanes). However there is a missing link from the corner of Des Sources to PR station.

It seems like when they rebuilt that section of Pierrefonds Boulevard merging with Gouin over the past couple of years, they actively chose not to build a protected or segregated active transit lane, even though the timing was perfect as the old level crossing was being deprecated and rearranged under the REM guideway.

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Yep I agree they totally missed that. But my guess is they want bikes to take Gouin instead of Pierrefonds which okay why not. But there’s no infrastructure for bikes on Gouin. Or that people would go all the way up to the roundabout on Des Sources and take the bike path in the little forest.

Also despite the lack of infrastructure I see many many people bike already on Gouin. Even during the winter there’s some. And not the type of cyclist who do it as a sport. And when the train was there many many people use to walk and bike.

And I think they could make it work. You don’t need to start with hundreds, a few dozen bikes at key spots to start could work.

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As its always said, build it and they will come

Its really stupid of the mayor to oppose bike infrastructure near the stations. As with many other things, peoples are going to do what they want and the mayor is going to end up being confronted with the reality of how peoples use those stations.

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Indeed! It’s getting replaced with a bus lane.

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I kind of have schadenfreude in this case, that mayor literally says it with his whole chest that he’s slowing development!

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‘I was elected to slow down development,’ Pointe-Claire mayor tells Poilievre

The federal Conservative leader held a news conference Thursday outside the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping centre to denounce bureaucracy that he says has stalled housing projects.

Jason Magder • Montreal Gazette

Published Feb 15, 2024 • 3 minute read

Federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre and his Quebec lieutenant Pierre Paul-Hus point to a sign reading Build the Homes in an empty parking lot near a train track.
Federal Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, left, and his Quebec lieutenant Pierre Paul-Hus point to a board following a news conference in Pointe-Claire on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. PHOTO BY CHRISTINNE MUSCHI /The Canadian Press

Pointe-Claire’s mayor says he found it strange to see his city singled out by Pierre Poilievre for not doing enough to solve the housing crisis.

The federal Conservative leader held an hourlong news conference Thursday morning in the parking lot of the Fairview Pointe-Claire shopping centre, underneath the aerial tracks of the future REM line, to denounce bureaucracy and delays that he says have stalled thousands of housing projects across the island of Montreal.

“(Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau has caused this problem by funding local bureaucracies that block homebuilding,” Poilievre claimed. He repeated statements he has made in the past about local governments holding up housing. Last month, he accused Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand of incompetence and causing tens of thousands of housing units to be stalled. On Thursday, he blamed the city of Pointe-Claire for blocking the first phase of a Cadillac Fairview development destined to be built on part of the mall’s parking lot.

“Here we are next to a federally funded future transit station, and the local owner wants to develop apartments and housing in this parking lot, but local bureaucracy is blocking that construction that would allow seniors and students to live next to a massive transit station that would take them to McGill University or to the airport,” Poilievre said.

He added that a federal Conservative government would incentivize municipalities through the gas tax transfer, which is up for renewal in March. His plan would provide bonuses to cities that build more than a predetermined target, and penalize those that don’t build enough housing. All new transit projects would also have to include a housing component, Poilievre added.

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But Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas countered that too many housing units have been built without much thought given to the best way to design the urban fabric.

“This is sensible, responsible urban planning in a community where developers have been given too many red carpets, and not enough red tape,” Thomas said. “I was elected to slow down development.”

He said the city of Pointe-Claire has added more housing than the rest of the West Island, with 2,055 units built from 2017 to 2022, compared with 1,655 for the rest of the West Island. Despite that, the city saw the largest average rent increase in the country last year, at roughly 25.6 per cent, according to statistics Thomas gleaned from Rentals.ca.

As for the housing development in the parking lot, Cadillac Fairview has proposed two 25-storey residential towers. It has also proposed a second phase, which would see the Fairview Forest razed to pave the way for single-family units. Both phases were frozen in an interim control bylaw in May 2022 while the city redrafts its urban plan, which will include public consultations about conservation of green space.

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Thomas said he wants to preserve the Fairview Forest, as it is the last remaining unprotected natural space in the city.

A citizens’ group has protested in front of the forest every week since the fall of 2020, hoping to raise awareness about preserving the space, which is home to 35 at-risk species of animals and plants.

“I think there are a lot of ways to develop without sacrificing green space,” said Geneviève Lussier, a spokesperson for Save Fairview Forest. “It’s a miracle that the forest is still there and that it stayed wild as long as it has been. With the influx of population in that area, we need to maintain that green space as is.”

She said she’s alarmed that Poilievre came to Pointe-Claire to denounce the slow progress of housing development.

“I think we’re better off with a decentralized method of decision-making,” Lussier said. “I don’t think the federal government has the best knowledge about each specific municipality. There are reasons that municipalities have those powers.”

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C’est rare que je suis d’accord avec Poilievre, mais là dessus, je suis 100% d’accord. Un stunt médiatique tout à fait justifié. La gang de boomers chiâleux et privilégiés de Pointe-Claire ne peuvent pas vivre dans un monde parallèle où ils peuvent fait fi de la crise du logement et du fait que Pointe-Claire est recouvert d’asphalte qui demande juste à être développé. Encore du Nimbyisme hypocrite masqué par de prétendues préoccupations environnementales. Maudit que ça m’écoeure…

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