Gatineau residents start petition in favour of Place des Peuples condo towers
'We're going to try our best to make sure it happens,' says founder of group in favour
It's not every day that residents of a neighbourhood start a petition in favour of large-scale condo developments that far exceed the city's plan for their area, but that's exactly what's happened in Gatineau, Que.
The company Brigil is proposing two mixed-use hotel and condominium towers in downtown Gatineau, called Place des Peuples.
The 35- and 55-storey towers would sit on Rue Laurier directly across from the Canadian Museum of History and would include an underground link to the museum. The towers themselves would be linked by several floors of space designed to look similar to the curvy museum.
The $400-million plan has not yet been formally presented to the city for approval. That's expected to happen later this month.
Maxime Hupé-Labelle, who lives in Thurso, Que., and ran for the federal Conservatives in the riding of Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, started the petition and the group Develop the Museum Quarter, along with Patrick Pilon, in response to critics of the towers..
As of Wednesday the petition had gathered about 1,150 signatures and neared its goal of the 1,500.
'It's a good project'
Hupé-Labelle told Ottawa Morning Wednesday that more density in the Hull sector will improve quality of life in the area.
"There are some restaurants and small businesses that don't have enough clients to ... make a profit and have a decent life, so by having a higher density of population on the island of Hull is going to improve the quality of life of everyone," Hupé-Labelle said.
"I would say, if you really listen to Brigil ... it's really not going to feel like it's not human scale. It's going to fit like it's human scale."
His group will present their petition to the city when the official plan comes before council.
"We're going to try our best to make sure it happens. It's a good project for Gatineau and Hull," Hupé-Labelle said.