by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
October 25, 2004
Busybody municipal mandarins, who run Montreal's Westmount Borough, are looking at community doors and windows for their bylaws. If it works, next they'll be peering inside community doors and windows.
This time it's a bylaw "to preserve Westmount's architectural heritage".
Dramatic changes to urban planning regulations, to be tabled at the Nov. 1 borough council meeting include a ban on plastic or any other form of PVC for windows and doors, a reduction in construction projects in the Mount Royal historic district, and a minimum requirement for green space on residential lots.
And these rubes aren't kidding, folks.
At a recent public consultation meeting, borough mayor Karin Marks said the modifications are necessary to keep up with increased construction and the unwanted changes it may bring.
Brisk construction is better than workers on the dole, some might say.
It was way too early to get out and fix the mammoth potholes that always follow harsh Montreal winters, and the garbage has already been taken out. But it seems that after Montreal said au revoir to the Expos, boredom came to beset municipal mandarins.
The borough's planning committee, represented by councillors and architects, are not out to save Mother Earth and the Environment, they aim to preserve the beauty, aesthetic and cultural heritage of ritzy Westmount.
Westmount is a mansion-studded borough and a Montreal address of prestige, with an SUV in almost every driveway.
"We're lucky to be a suburban community in an urban environment," said Marks. "Larger amounts of paved space in the front and back yards detract from the streetscape and community at large."
Marks aspires to stem the increased use of concrete around homes by making it mandatory to have soft landscaping cover 60 percent of the backyard, excluding the driveways.
Problem is in Westmount, winter snows cover the landscaping about 60 percent of the time.
But it's the banning of PVC that is attracting the most attention.
Some homeowners believe that more affordable replacement options for windows and doors should be allowed. They believe that PVC is a better option because it's less costly than wood or metal, and more energy efficient.
Yves Houle, a director with the Canadian Window and Door Manufacturers Association, says the proposed ban is unreasonable.
"It's an outdated solution," said Houle, who works for the Laval-based Thermoplast firm, specializing in PVC windows and doors. "Most of the market is now PVC: It can be aesthetically pleasing and made into all kinds of styles and colours."
Never try to stop a mayor who's got architectural heritage on her portfolio.
"Our bylaws must be respected," Marks said. "If they're not, we go to court with them."
Local politicians trying to protect the borough's cultural heritage have been fending off hotdog vendors for the past 50 years.
City Hall threatened the dog dealers with jail time and seizure of their vehicles.
One councillor pointed out that Westmount is much more a "chestnuts kind of place" than a hotdog one.
If council put the run to the hotdog vendors, they may not find energy efficient aware Westmount homeowners so easy to fend off.
Building costs are already high; to artificially inflate them under the guise of preserving architectural heritage could be perceived as irresponsible.
Perhaps it's time to replace Westmount's proposed municipal bylaw with the taxpayers' MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) clause.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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