Gatineau proposed changes to the building demolition regulation
Sophie Demers
Since 2020, there has been a significant increase in demolition requests in the city. In 2020 there were 28 requests submitted, 19 in 2021, 67 in 2022, and 68 in 2023. This has not gone unnoticed by residents; many have voiced their concerns with how quickly their neighbourhoods are changing.
Last month, the Gatineau administration presented proposed changes to the demolition regulations to clarify the rules governing demolition requests. The main objective of the changes is to protect heritage buildings, monitor existing housing supply to maintain a varied offering that meets today's challenges, and better access the proposed replacement construction after demolition.
The proposal clarifies that a heritage building is one that is listed on one of the City’s built heritage inventories or built before 1940. The only exception would be a court ordered demolition. The city also wants to limit the building types that would be subject to a decision by the Comité des Demandes de Démolition (CDD) to residential, to control housing supply, and institutional, as they are part of a neighbourhood and part of a community’s identity. The exception would be a court ordered demolition or if the building is damaged due to fire, natural disaster or is to be replaced with the same number of units.
Demolition requests are to be evaluated based on seven criteria: condition of the property, value of the building, impact on the neighbourhood, restoration costs, planned use of cleared land, impact on tenants, and housing needs in the area.
All requests require five documents: plans for the cleared land, report of the building’s condition, restoration costs, proof of correspondence to tenants, notifying them of the demolition requests, and any additional information to meet evaluation criteria. An extra document is required for all heritage buildings – a heritage value evaluation.
Gatineau also clarified the procedure of a CDD meeting to ensure that anyone can intervene to voice their concerns regarding a demolition request. The proposed regulation changes allow anyone to request a review of a decision made by the CDD as opposed to only Gatineau residents.
Finally, the authorization of a demolition by the CDD will no longer be valid if any element of the plans’ details in the documents is changed. If the regulation changes pass, and then an element of the plans changes, a new demolition request will need to be submitted for the CDD to reassess.
“The proposed changes answer the questions and concerns that citizens have had in the last few months, especially for tenants. There are great improvements here that have been made to make sure they have everything they need when their building is targeted by a demolition request,” said Caroline Murray, president of the CDD and Deschênes councillor. “We've also improved the process by specifying which buildings should be targeted by the demolition committee. I'm thinking about buildings damaged by fire. We have seen the example several times where families have waited months for their files to go to the demolition committee.”
The proposed regulation change will be officially adopted during the November 19 municipal council meeting. A public meeting for residents hoping to know more about the proposed regulation change will take place on November 12. If accepted, the regulation should come into effect in January 2025.
