CHAPTER TWO the Montréal Harbourfront Area the City and the St
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CHAPTER TWO The Montréal Harbourfront Area The City and the St. Lawrence – Analysis of Development Issues and Potential 2.1 Boundaries of the Montréal harbourfront area include the sectors com- In short, the task will be to design a major urban HARBOURFRONT COMPONENTS prising the area of the CN renewal project while avoiding the pitfall of planning Point St. Charles shops, the the development of one sector in isolation from the banks of the Lachine Canal other sectors. For example, it would be unfortunate if A. Jean Drapeau Park west to Des Seigneurs the urban park and promenade at the Old Port were B. CN and VIA Rail Canada yards Bridge, Griffintown, Old transformed into a basically recreational and tourist C. Hotel district Montréal, Faubourg site tailored to the organization of major public events, D. Entertainment district Québec and Faubourg des at the expense of Old Montréal's historic neighbour- E. Viger area/Faubourg Québec Récollets. This was to hoods. These neighbourhoods are gradually becoming F. Cité du Havre ensure that the project was a viable place to live again; residents want a vibrant G. Lachine Canal well integrated with the urban lifestyle but do not want to feel like they are neighbourhoods adjacent to living in a kind of Disneyland. H. Cité Multimédia/ Faubourg des Récollets the harbourfront. 30 This more integrated way of envisaging the develop- I. Quartier international As Figure 2.2 shows, the ment of the harbourfront is one of the reasons for J. Old Montréal /Old Port harbourfront area is deciding to expand the target area. K. Griffintown squeezed between the St. L. Windmill Point Pier Lawrence River and major Another equally important reason for this decision was M. Bickerdike Pier land transportation infra- the enormous development potential of the fragmented N. Peel Basin structure. Railway tracks, and isolated areas along the Bonaventure and Ville- O. Point St. Charles the CN Point St. Charles Marie expressways. The SHM believes that it is crucial freight yard and the to co-ordinate the redevelopment of these sectors, for P. Northern end of Nuns' Island Bonaventure and Ville- they serve as interfaces between the downtown core, Figure 2.1 Q. Tate and Wellington basin area Marie expressways form Boundaries and Point St. Charles, the entertainment district/Faubourg subsectors of R. Canada Post property urban barriers that hinder Saint-Laurent and Centre-Sud neighbourhood and the harbourfront S. Port of Montreal railway yard the development of the harbourfront per se. planning area. T. Seaway harbourfront and make U. Technoparc access difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to pursue an integrated V. Faubourg Saint-Laurent development project that, to our mind, is much more The stated objective for promising, while also establishing a framework of over 25 years, of restoring sustainable development. Map: Multiconcept Graphisme Inc. Montrealers' access to the river and its banks, will require a major effort to rede- velop the fragmented and isolated urban areas south of The 10-km2 planning area of the SHM, shown with a Technoparc and northern tip of Nuns' Island. The plan- downtown. dotted black line in Figure 2.1, extends from the ning area also extends south to include Saint-Hélène Champlain Bridge in the west to the junction of the and Notre-Dame islands and the St. Lawrence River If the urban renewal of the harbour- CPR and Port of Montréal spur rail lines (near Moreau itself. front is to be part of a viable long-term Street) in the east. plan, simply providing river access This area is larger than that initially proposed by the points and landscaping the riverbanks The northern limit runs along Notre-Dame Street, from City of Montréal for the harbourfront planning and will not be enough. The city must be Moreau Street to the Jacques Cartier Bridge, and then action area. After analysis and discussion, the SHM reunited with its river and the harbour- branches off to the northwest along Viger Avenue as far decided to include some of the areas identified as front must be opened up to the city. It as University Street, taking in Old Montréal, Faubourg being closely related to the harbourfront, but that were was with this vision in mind that the Québec and Faubourg des Récollets. not originally targeted as areas for action (Figure 2.2).1 SHM decided to incorporate the neigh- bourhoods adjacent to the harbour- After taking in Griffintown, west of the Bonaventure Therefore, along with the areas immediately next to the front into its area of responsibility. Figure 2.2 Expressway, the boundary runs along Ottawa Street to St. Lawrence River- Saint-Hélène and Notre-Dame Initial boundaries the Des Seigneurs Bridge over the Lachine Canal, islands, the port area near the Jacques Cartier Bridge, of the Montréal taking in the eastern part of Point St. Charles as well as the Old Port, Peel Basin, Technoparc and northern tip Harbourfront project (yellow the entrance to the Lachine Canal National Historic of Nuns' Island- which made up the scope of the ini- and orange Site, CN yards, southwestern campus of the tial project, the SHM thought it was necessary to areas) Source: City of Montréal, Service du développement économique et du 1. City of Montréal. Le Havre de Montréal, August 2002. développement urbain, August 2002 Assessment of the Situation 2.2 The harbourfront in its river context: the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes Aside from the Great Lakes, the river is fed 2.2.1 The International Joint mainly by the Ottawa (2,100 m3/s) and Richelieu Commission (IJC) (355 m3/s) rivers, located immediately upstream Water level regulation in the St. Lawrence and downstream of Montréal respectively. The Figure 2.4 is managed by the International Joint St. Lawrence Richelieu flows south a considerable way to its Commission (IJC), an international River- Great source in Lake Champlain which, in turn, is bilateral organization created under the Lakes hydro- linked on its southern end to the Hudson River logical system: Boundary Waters Treaty signed by the US via the Champlain Barge Canal, thus providing a controlled and Canada in 1909 to resolve or prevent environment. direct access to New York City. conflicts over the use of this shared Harbour Basin resource. In 1952, the IJC created the Several hydroelectric plants and control International St. Lawrence River Board of stations modify the natural flow of the Control, whose mandate is to manage water levels Figure Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence 2.3 in Lake Ontario and Lake Saint-François to ensure a River (Figure 2.4) 31 The guaranteed minimum water level for users, particularly Montréal the Port of Montreal and St. Lawrence Seaway. harbourfront: Upstream of Lake Saint-François, gateway to the heart of three major dams on the Ontario the North portion of the St. Lawrence control American its flow: Moses-Saunders conti- nent (Cornwall), Long Sault and Iroquois. 2.2.2 Hydroelectric potential In Quebec, upstream of Lake St. Louis, As we have seen, flow rates in the St. Lawrence at the Les Cèdres and Beauharnois hydro- Source: City of Montréal, Service de la mise en valeur du territoire et du Montreal are controlled by a number of upstream electric plants control the flow at the outlet of patrimoine hydroelectric plants and control structures. Nearby Lake Saint-François. hydroelectric generating stations- Beauharnois To understand the Montréal harbourfront's geography, (1,652 MW) and Les Cèdres (135 MW) on the These infrastructure, built in the 1960s, limit water its riverine aspects must be examined. St. Lawrence River, Carillon (752 MW) on the Ottawa level variations between Cornwall and Montréal. River and Rivière-des-Prairies (48 MW) on the des Before the construction of the dams, these variations The Montréal harbourfront is the gateway to the heart PrairiesRiver- provide a total capacity of 2,587 MW. could be as great as 50 cm on Lake Saint-François of North America as well as the major cities of the east from one year to the next; today, they do not exceed Source: Dynamics and Contamination of St. Lawrence River Sediment, coast and centre of the continent. It is ideally located Recently, Hydro-Québec has been looking at the possi- 15 cm. Environment Canada, 1997. Reproduced by permission from the at the confluence of a complex hydrological network, bility of building a 372 MW run-of-river hydroelectric Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2004. of which the St. Lawrence- Great Lakes system forms plant with submerged turbines between the tip of Cité Lake St. Louis, located downstream of Lake Saint- the major part. du Havre and Île Sainte-Hélène, just downstream of François, is fed both by the Great Lakes and the the Concorde Bridge. Ottawa River, the latter's flow controlled by the Between Cornwall, Ontario, and Baie-Comeau, Carillon hydroelectric plant. Lake St. Louis is strongly Quebec, where the river gives way to the estuary, the This project, which was been postponed indefinitely The completed project, however, would have allowed affected by extreme seasonal variations in high water mean annual flow2 of the St. Lawrence increases from when it was decided to go ahead with the construction much more user-friendly development of the riverbanks on the Ottawa River, where the flow rate ranges from 7,800 m3/s to 16,800 m3/s due to the contribution of its of the Suroît thermal generating station in Beauharnois and boating and other water activities in the resulting 306 m3/s during low water periods to 8,190 m3/s main tributaries, the Ottawa, Saguenay, Manicouagan, (800 MW), would have created an immense basin artificial basin.