Westmount considering some zoning changes to encourage redevelopment [Video]

Westmount will be looking at a proposal to increase height allowances up to 20 storeys in part of the city’s southeast area to encourage redevelopment at Monday’s council meeting.

The change would affect a stretch of St-Catherine Street and part of the Dorchester area.

Mayor Christina Smith says the city has been brainstorming ways to make St-Catherine more attractive for commercial activity and maybe add housing units. It commissioned architecture firm Lemay to draft an urban plan to do so.

She says the firm held public consultations and met with stakeholders to come up with ideas, but nothing is set in stone. In December, some critics penned a letter to The Montreal Gazette saying that densifying the area is not enough if it doesn’t produce welcoming spaces.

Rather than seeing high-rises next to heritage buildings like the Atwater Library, they want family housing between four to seven-storey buildings, terrasses, tree cover and play spaces.

“I think there …