Despite the criticism of en-vironmentalists, citizen groups and downtown merchants, promoters of a massive $1.3-billion redevelopment of Montreal’s Griffintown district finally got the green light.

Griffintown is one of Montreal’s oldest industrial neighbourhoods and seemed a natural for a facelift, given its proximity to downtown and its rundown state. But projects that involve expropriation, demolition and construction are rarely an easy sell. A number of such projects in Montreal have run into stiff opposition in recent years.

The massive 17-block Griffintown redevelopment is the biggest since the building boom of the effervescent years around Expo 67. It’s also the largest private investment project in the city’s history.

Located just south of downtown, Griffin-town was settled largely by Irish immigrants in the early 1800s. The new arrivals were close to factories, which were linked to nearby railyards, ports and the Lachine Canal. But the neighbourhood slowly deteriorated in the years after it was cut off from the rest of the city by an expressway and a railway viaduct and the canal was closed to marine traffic. The area is ripe for redevelopment.

The developer, Devimco Inc., plans to make a huge swath of land into a mixed residential, commercial and recreational centre. Work is to begin next year and will stretch over eight years. The 3,860 housing units will range from low-cost housing to luxury condos, while the commercial element will include 200,000 square feet of big-box stores, many smaller retail spaces, offices, two hotels, a marina and a movie complex. There is even a proposal to build a tramway to link the site to downtown via Peel Street.

Not long after the project was announced this past November, opponents started to attack not only specifics of the plan but also the municipal approval process. The new Griffintown, critics complained, violated Montreal’s master development plan and city hall didn’t consult the public until the project was all but set in stone.

Some of the strongest complaints have been aimed at the administration of Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay: it had orchestrated an end run around the decision-making process, bypassing a public consultation office staffed with independent urban-planning experts; instead, the consultation was delegated to the local borough, headed by a loyalist.

Meanwhile, heritage advocates decried a plan to destroy an historic grid of streets and other landmark features. And environmentalists complained that efforts to put a green face on the project were inadequate and would fall short of what’s being done elsewhere on the continent.

Then, there are the downtown merchants, who worry that their customers will be tugged south to an alternative hub, hurting what is now one of North America’s most vibrant cores. Finally, social activists complained the project was too heavy on high-end condos and too light on affordable and subsidized housing units.

In response, Devimco announced a last-minute $40-million reworking of its plan. On the environmental front, the firm says it will cut the number of parking spaces to about 6,800 from 8,000, increase its contribution to the tramway to $15 million from $10 million, and add $5 million for increasing the number of new green spaces and public areas. Devimco also says it will contribute $1.5 million for transit passes for residents and new workers in the area. Devimco also has increased the number of affordable and subsidized housing units and preserved the historic street grid that had been originally slated for demolition.

The changes don’t satisfy all the critics. Just before the city council voted, citizen groups held a mock funeral for Griffintown: they carried a coffin and asked for the vote to be delayed. But, in the end, the project was opposed by just three of 65 councillors. Now, Montreal will wait to see whether the new Griffintown reflects the developer’s promises. IE