The document discusses how citizen participation through public consultation can help build more sustainable cities. It outlines the role of Montreal's Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) in facilitating public discussions on major urban projects. The OCPM acts as a neutral third party to produce public consultations and reports to help elected officials' decision making. Through inclusive processes that engage the general public, citizens can influence development orientations and local issues. This allows transparency and ensures collective and individual interests are considered for sustainable development.

1. Building sustainable cities through
citizen participation
ocpm.qc.ca

2. • Are citizens sustainable-city builders?
• How do we foster issue-conscious
contribution?
ocpm.qc.ca

3. • A neutral, independent third party
– A President and 28 commissioners appointed by a 2/3 majority of votes cast
by city council
– Subject to a public code of ethics
• A public consultation producer
– On major urban projects, revitalization plans and public policies
– Conciliation, arbitration identification, pursuit of optimum results and the
common good, help with elected officials’ decision-making
• Public report, submitted to city council
• The Office has been in existence for almost 10 years
ocpm.qc.ca

4. • Cities are vulnerable to development problems owing to
population density
– The city is broken up into multiple communities
– No common agreement on vision implementation methods;
multiplicity of points of view
– Generating common approaches, fostering community spirit
– Democracy should be a SD factor. Is it?
• Urbanism consisting of planning and negotiation
– The development processes become as important as the norms
– Can the processes generate SD?
ocpm.qc.ca

5. • Agreement on the objectives
– Making the urban environment more resource thrifty
– More conductive to social integration and economic development
– More equitable in terms of housing, mobility and access to public
services
• Very hands-on experience in public-right-of-action
arbitration and hierarchization
ocpm.qc.ca

6. • An interactive process
– To share and further develop a diagnosis, knowledge, and integrate
common knowledge
– To identify common values
– To generate development guidelines
– To discuss community choices
– To give meaning and direction to SD through reflection and
discussion
• Revitalization of industrial land; redevelopment of
destructured neighbourhoods; development planning of
urban areas
ocpm.qc.ca

7. –
ocpm.qc.ca

8. Representatives of:
– Community groups
– Economic groups (CEDC)
– The health community (DSP)
– The school community (School Board and École des Nations)
– The borough
ocpm.qc.ca

9. • A follow-up committee interacts, validates, goes beyond
– Outlining the development context of the area
– Discussions on development problems and opportunities
– Discussions on development biases
• 5 forums with target publics
– Presentation and discussion of preliminary orientations by the borough
• With residents of the Namur – Jean-Talon ouest site
• With all the members of the CDN Community Council
• With the residents of the Victoria area
• With store and office building owners doing business on the site
ocpm.qc.ca

10. • Convergences/divergences – Follow-up committee
– Review of discussions with target publics
– Identification of convergences and divergences
– Problems and opportunities
• Open house and public forum
• Hearing of briefs
• OCPM report
ocpm.qc.ca

11. • Identity and densification of the area
• The place of social housing
• The place of families
• The place of the automobile
• Access to the site and parking for stores and office buildings
• Interaction and interdependence of uses
• Quality of the urban environment and safety
• The special case of Mountain Sights Avenue
ocpm.qc.ca

12. • Inclusive processes with the contribution of the general public
– Targeting collective interest
– Taking into account all individual interests
• Complete transparency
• Citizens have an influence on
– Development orientations
– Local issues and the configuration of concrete projects
• A detailed report serving as a memorandum to all
– On the vision and future of the site and development orientations
– On the participants’ suggestions
ocpm.qc.ca

13. • The Montreal Master Plan is biaised in favour of sustainable
development
– A balanced approach in terms of:
• Economic vitality
• Social equity
• Environmental preservation
• And respect for the needs of future generations
• How do debates held by the OCPM contribute to giving shape to
Montrealers’ values in the city?
– Solidarity
– Coherence
– Conviviality
ocpm.qc.ca

14. Inclusion of affordable housing
• Increasingly pressing demand for the
inclusion of affordable and social housing
units in residential complexes
– Battle against gentrification; social mix
• Openness of developers, resulting exclusively
from the existence of formal public debate
– Upstream
– Adjustment and sometimes increase in %
– Amounts in reserve to build off site
– Qualitative aspects of inclusion
• The public debate: a spokesperson; a
monitor
– For the application of the municipal strategy
Ateliers Rosemont
(Quartier 54)
ocpm.qc.ca

15. Local hiring
• An emerging issue, benefiting local communities
• Public debate has contributed to
– The visibility of issues
– The identification of commitment possibilities by the developers
• Discussion/joint action with local follow-up committees
• Collaboration in the drawing up of a local hiring strategy
• A place for social economy organizations
ocpm.qc.ca

16. • Strong demand for an area-wide
development vision
• Densification of the territory
– Building heights and envelopes are views as
blots on the urban landscape
– Desire for complexes that provide
continuity with the area rather than
fracturing it
1475 boul. René-Lévesque
ocpm.qc.ca

17. • Public debate has served to improve
integration into the neighbourhood
to preserve its identity
– Softening of fractures; transition elements;
design adjustments
– Taking into account of the spirit of the area
– Control of negative impacts: sunlighting,
traffic, etc.
– Protection of views
– Reconciliation: making public transit
infrastructures profitable while consolidating
neighbourhood identities
ocpm.qc.ca

18. The place accorded to pedestrians
• Concerns regarding parking space reductions
– Increased public transit offering
– Fear of automobiles spilling over onto neighbourhood streets
– Access problems for stores
• Every area has its own distinctive transportation dynamics – there is no
universal solution
• Public debate does not seen to have a substantial effect on the reduction
of parking spaces
– 3/8 of recommendations have led to partial reductions
ocpm.qc.ca

19. ravelling conditions
• Through-traffic is viewed as a menace to tranquility
and safety
• Public debate improves travelling conditions in the
area
– Vehicle access and safe passenger drop-off areas
– Indoor parking garages
– Better bus service
– Car-sharing and bicycle-rental spaces
– Financing of part of the monthly public transit card for
new residents
ocpm.qc.ca

20. The development of green spaces
• Strong demand for everything green
• Many developers would like their projects to better correspond with the
citizens’ idea of a welcoming place
– LEED certification approaches, Quartiers verts, Villes et villages en santé
– Fighting heat islands, white/green roofs
– Community gardens
• Public debate has allowed us to:
– Increase public access to green spaces with the establishment of pedestrian
and bicycle paths
– To reflect on the role of green spaces in day-to-day life
ocpm.qc.ca

21. ocpm.qc.ca