Commentaire mis en ligne le 20 février 2010

What is going on ?

At the information meeting, Verdun announced with pride that the new fire station building would have an ecologically friendly "green rooftop". This is a trend in responsible urban development.

However, the Gravel site is essentially a giant parking lot with one flat roof building. Green space is non existent. Any qualified urban planner will tell you that this is a "no no". It's a giant ecological "hotspot" on what is supposed to be a green Nun's Island. A remnant of unplanned island development soon to be demolished.

The promoter plans to build 5 new buildings on this hotspot. Sounds great because this will reduce the size of the parking lot - right? Nope! These 5 buildings have roofs which, like blacktop paving, also act as heat generators. Obviously, this construction will not improve the land's eco-friendly properties. Just more of the same old antiquated building techniques that we will pass on to our kids. Let them deal with it 30 years from now. Is that what we want? I don't think so!

Verdun has a golden opportunity to get it right this time. Why not do it?

From what I have been led to believe, official borough documents state that acceptance of this project is conditional on having 5 "green rooftops", just like the fire station. I don't recall Verdun officials mentioning this fact.

William M Smith

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